Jason Moran

31 year-old pianist Jason Moran has proven, after seven years on the estimable Blue Note Records, more than his brilliance as a performer. He’s established himself as a risk-taker, a seeker of new directions for jazz as a whole. Looking to the wider world of art for inspiration, Moran has found it in edgy 20th century painters like Jean-Michel Basquiat (check out “JAMO Meets SAMO” from Soundtrack to Human Motion, his 1999 debut as a leader, as well as his ongoing series of “Gangsterism” compositions), Egon Schiele (from whose painting entitled “Facing Left” Moran borrowed the title of his second album for Blue Note) and Robert Rauschenberg, whose chaotic refinement inspired Moran’s third album Black Stars, featuring the legendary Sam Rivers.