One can be both fan and virtuoso: American pianist Jason Moran is a forward-thinking pianist with a deep historical grounding. Here, he revisits one of jazz's most beautiful repertoires, honouring one of its greatest legends of all times: Duke Ellington. As Rolling Stone observed, he is 'shaping up to be the most provocative thinker in current jazz'. His latest album, exploring the work of Duke Ellington, reveals a pianist at the peak of his creative powers.
Jazz pianist, composer, and artist Jason Moran hails from Houston, TX. He's an alumnus of the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Jaki Byard. Upon graduation, he studied with Andrew Hill and Muhal Richard Abrams. Moran's 18-year relationship with Blue Note Records produced 9 highly acclaimed recordings. His groundbreaking trio, The Bandwagon with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits is currently celebrating their 26th anniversary.
Moran's performances with Cassandra Wilson, Charles Lloyd, and Sam Rivers reveal the scope of Moran's partnerships and music making. He has also worked with visual artists Adrian Piper, Joan Jonas, Glenn Ligon, Adam Pendleton, Lorna Simpson, Kara Walker, Stan Douglas and others. Recent awards and fellowships include the MacArthur Foundation, US Artists, Doris Duke Foundation and Ford Foundation. Moran collaborated with his wife, the mezzo-soprano/composer Alicia Hall Moran, as named artists in the 2012 Whitney Biennial, constructing BLEED, a five-day series of live performances spanning Motown to acupuncture to dance. They also created WORK SONGS for the 2015 Venice Biennale and Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration for Carnegie Hall.
Moran has produced 11 additional albums for his record label Yes Records. He also created scores for Ava DuVernay's films Selma, 13th, and 14th. History is a recurring theme for Moran, who has mounted monumental touring works for Thelonious Monk (IN MY MIND: Monk at Town Hall 1959), Fats Waller (Fats Waller Dance Party, plus a Grammy-nominated album All Rise: An Elegy for Fats Waller) and James Reese Europe (James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hellfighters: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield).
Working broadly, Moran aims for the intersections between music and society. This led to collaborations with to an array of people including novelists Haruki Murakami, skateboarder Mark Gonzales and poet Elizabeth Alexander. He was the Artistic Director for Jazz at The Kennedy Center from 2011-2025 and currently curates the Artist Studio series at the Park Avenue Armory. As a curator, Moran created the permanent exhibition Here to Stay for the newly opened Louis Armstrong Museum in Queens, New York and co-curated the exhibition I’ve Seen the Wall: Louis Armstrong on Tour in the GDR 1965 at DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam, Germany. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory in Boston.
Presented by NCH
Date: Thu 26 Nov
Location: National Museum of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2
Date: Sun 2 May 2027
Location: National Concert Hall
