Quotes
“Jake Hart is a double threat. At such a young age, he is well on his way towards performing and composing at the highest level. We will watch and listen to Jake with great interest.”
— Dave Liebman
NEA Jazz Master
“Jake’s creativity knows no boundaries. He blends several hundred years of western musical styles into his own unique art form. On the genius level, Jake is truly the new avant-garde."
— Barbara Lister-Sink
“Jake Hart is a phenomenal musical talent. He is equally at home in the subtle, refined world of classical, tonal music styles and emotions, and the most complex harmonic and emotional landscapes of atonal and dissonant music. He also commands the piano with his coloristic and virtuoso technique.”
“Jake Hart is truly a unique and special performing and composing talent on the piano - one whose prowess spans from jazz and bebop to contemporary classical music. He is a tremendous improvisor who has developed a bebop-influenced style, yet one expressed through his own unique musical lens. For me, Hart’s solo piano playing is especially endearing: steeped in the solo piano tradition, yet with such a beautifully personal approach to harmony and rhythm. His latest foray into contemporary composition has brought some incredibly inventive and adventurous music out of him, and I can’t wait to hear more of it!”
— Martin Bejerano
“Jake recently sent me a recording of himself playing one of his pieces. The level of playing and writing completely blew me away. I expected it to be good but instead, heard a work of great imagination, power and depth, played with power and passion. We can look forward to great things from him!”
— Rick Margitza
"Jake as a pianist, has his bases covered, from a swinging post-bop style to impressive improvisations based on chromatic music concepts, all executed with aplomb.”
— Phil Markowitz
“Occasionally I hear a young musician who plays jazz great and has a lot of promise. Once in a while, I hear a piece by a young composer which would be impressive no matter what his or her age is. But I doubt I’ve ever heard both rolled into one, certainly not at this high a level!”
— Marc Copland
“One of the ways I become enlightened to the reality that I’m experiencing great art, is the moment I become aware of its constant newness, when each and every visit seems to reveal more and more of itself, provoking thought, imagery, forms and feelings of which prior to the initial encounter I was unaware. Jake Hart’s Collage is definitely falling into the category of great art for me. This is a superb modern work, composed within the realm of a complex genre. Every note, rhythm, chord, color, texture, nuance and dynamic is performed completely from memory! What planet is this guy from? Bravo, Jake!”
— Stephen Riley
"At a relatively young age, Jake Hart is already a profound musical thinker, has a deep and seemingly inexhaustible reserve of ideas to draw from, and displays a remarkably mature touch on the piano. I look forward to hearing more from this promising artist.”
— Ben Monder
“I would describe Jake Hart’s Collage as inventive, dissonant, melodic, rhythmically sophisticated and very emotional. It took two separate listening sessions to get through it; but like the feeling of finishing a good book, this piece and performance has enriched my life.”
— Joe Magnarelli
"Jake Hart is a consummate pianist. He is technically facile; able to combine his talent with a four-dimensional language in contemporary composition. It will certainly be fascinating to follow his career henceforth because the sky is the limit.”
— Walt Weiskopf
“Jake’s music has a flow, gentleness and lyricism that shines through the general absence of harmonic center and strict rhythmic time, and his touch at the piano is lovely. Truly fascinating music and beautiful to listen to.”
— Chris Potter