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The Checkout Presents BIGYUKI in Concert, This Friday at Nublu

On Friday, Nov. 2, BIGYUKI will appear on the latest installment of The Checkout's concert series at 151 Nublu in the East Village. Tickets are available at Ticketfly.

BIGYUKI — aka keyboardist Masayuki Hirano — will join forces with the French American hip-hop/jazz ensemble Thiefs, a band that blends modern jazz with hip-hop and politically pointed spoken-word. Each artist will perform a set, followed by a special jam at the end of the night, which will be filmed for wbgo.org. The concert will be captured for a future installment of The Checkout podcast.

At last summer’s Montreal Jazz Festival, BIGYUKI spoke about some of the music he will feature in this exciting co-bill, repertoire on his album Reaching For Chiron.

We delve into that futuristic recording as well as Hirano’s fascinating background: how he found a path to the jazz tradition through the late pianist Kenny Kirkland, and how learning Chopin on his teacher’s lap as a kid informed his evident physicality on the keyboards. The artist is now frequently collaborating with Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest.

Subscribe to The Checkout podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Assistant Producers: Anthony Nieves and Sarah Geledi

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For more than 15 years, Simon Rentner has worked as a host, producer, broadcaster, web journalist, and music presenter in New York City. His career gives him the opportunity to cover a wide spectrum of topics including, history, culture, and, most importantly, his true passion of music from faraway places such as Europe, South America, and Africa.