Makiko Hirabayashi, Marilyn Mazur og Odense Jazz Orchestra

Hirabayashi’s compositions weave a beautiful sonic tapestry with the finest silk threads - coloured by her Japanese roots, Nordic tonal landscapes, and their shared sense of freedom and play across piano and percussion, gender and geography.

Line-up:
Makiko Hirabayashi (JP) – grand piano
Marilyn Mazur – percussion
Odense Jazz Orchestra – additional instruments

About the musicians
Makiko Hirabayashi
Makiko Hirabayashi is a Japanese pianist and composer who has lived in Copenhagen since 1990. She has gained widespread recognition as a distinctive voice on the international jazz scene since the release of her debut album as a bandleader in 2006. Over the past two decades, she has toured extensively across Europe and Asia with her trio (featuring Marilyn Mazur and Klavs Hovman), her quartet Weavers, and through various collaborations with some of Europe’s leading musicians.

Makiko’s latest and tenth studio album, Gifts (enja 2025), recorded with her quartet Weavers, follows their debut album, which won Jazz Album of the Year at the Danish Music Awards 2021. Sparked by a commission from the Händel Festival in Halle, the creation of this album became a deeply personal journey for the Tokyo-born pianist. Memories of Händel’s music, which she heard in her youth, inspired her to compose nine pieces that sound both fresh and reflective - a testament to the universal and transformative power of Händel’s music. The album, featuring leading figures from the Scandinavian scene - Fredrik Lundin (saxophone), Thommy Andersson (bass), and Bjørn Heebøll (drums) - flows effortlessly between intricate written passages and improvisation while maintaining a collective creative energy at its core.

With her long-standing Makiko Hirabayashi Trio, she has released five studio albums and toured internationally for more than twenty years. Their vibrant interplay and strong, narrative-driven compositions have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide. The trio’s latest album, Meteora, was selected among The Best Albums of 2023 by DownBeat Magazine, and Makiko was nominated for Jazz Composer of the Year at the Danish Music Awards 2024.

Marilyn Mazur
Danish drummer, composer, bandleader, and world music pioneer Marilyn Mazur has, over five decades, established herself as a master percussionist and visionary artist. She rose to international fame in the 1980s as a touring member of Miles Davis’s band during the Tutu era, and in the 1990s through her collaboration with Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek.

Throughout her career, Mazur has led a series of groundbreaking ensembles - most recently the adventurous 10-piece group Shamania, which unites ten of Scandinavia’s most inventive and acclaimed female musicians. The ensemble’s self-titled debut album was released in 2019 on the London-based label RareNoise Records.