New CD
Debut album of the notable Lithuanian pianist Gediminas Karkauskas
“Lost Suite” is a concept album of own compositions described as “melodic, lush and spiritual”
(Debbie B, US). It is a jazz album with classical influences, a poetic form which gives space for
improvisation within a contemporary jazz framework. The music projects a modern feel, but
rules are broken and the harmony is shifted to the limits; however the music retains its melodic
recognition. The aim was to project strong emotional feelings of the past and present, to be
thought provoking. As the improvisatory themes develop, the tension and release ebbs and
flows. “ I want to bring the listener on a journey; a mood captured and expressed through
musical narrative. That narrative is one of surprise turns, anticipation, a journey with an
unknown destination”.
Gediminas is currently working on material for his next album, due to be released next year.
Lost Suite
Read MoreMarlbank Article
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lost
suite- Lost suite
- Talking Summer
- The Blames Rests
- Not to sugar coat what has gone on here
- Alias
- Take Nothing
News & Events
London
Friday, 17 May 2024
The Archduke
Concert Hall Approach, Southbank, London SE1 8XU
Wexford
Saturday, 09 March 2024
Wexford Arts Centre
London
Friday, 01 March 2024
The Archduke
Concert Hall Approach, Southbank, London SE1 8XU
London
Friday, 02 February 2024
The Archduke
Concert Hall Approach, Southbank, London SE1 8XU
London
Friday, 24 November 2023
The Archduke
Concert Hall Approach, Southbank, London SE1 8XU
Dublin
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
French Film Festival
Tinahely
Saturday, 04 November 2023
Coollattin House
Tinahely
Friday, 03 November 2023
Courthouse Arts Centre
Wexford
Thursday, 02 November 2023
Garter Lane Arts Centre
London
Saturday, 23 September 2023
The Archduke
Concert Hall Approach, Southbank, London SE1 8XU
Blues and Jazz Club
Dublin
Gediminas Karkauskas Trio
14 September 2023, 8.30pm
Arthur's Jazz & Blues Club
28 Thomas St, The Liberties, Dublin, D08 VF83
The Archduke
Solo and Trio
Piano solo: 21 July 2023, 7pm
and
Trio: 22 July 2023, 7pm
with Julian Fenton and Larry Bartley
Concert
Hall
Introspection in Silk
15 May 2023, 7.30pm
John Field Room,
National Concert Hall,
Earlsfort Terrace, Saint Kevin's, Dublin, D02 N527
Jazz Festival
Jazz Trio with Melanie O'Reilly
Sat, Sun: 24, 25 of June 2023, 1pm
The Archduke
Solo and Trio
The Archduke
Duo
Piano duo with Julian Fenton (drums)
21 January 2023, 7pm
CONCERT HALL APPROACH, SOUTHBANK, LONDON SE1 8XU
The Archduke
Solo
at
Riverstown
Hall
Maynooth
November the 17th, 2022, 1pm
Tickets at the door
Trio
28 October 2022
Duo and Trio
15 October 2022
June 26th 2022
Gediminas Karkauskas featuring Cormac O'Brien and Lee Meehan playing Live in Vintage Room, come and experience great Jazz classics.
Tickets can be found here:
Eventbrite
Culture Nights
Trio
11 June 2022
Church
of Ireland
Gediminas First Performance Of His Debut Album - Lost Suite. The live debut will be in St Ann's Church of Ireland on the 3rd of April 2022.
jazz
Gediminas Karkauskas, a friend of Broma Jazz, a pianist who has lived and worked in Dublin for fifteen years, returns to Kėdainiai. He is known to music lovers from his trio, he appeared at the festival two years ago.... Now Gediminas will appear in a different amplitude - solo. His program - Tribute to Monk and Tribute to Bud Powel - have been positively evaluated by critics, translating a new page in G. Karkauskas' work. One of his creative breakthroughs took place in 2015. The Gediminas band, with legendary Irish guitarist Louis Stewart, gave concerts at the Dublin National Concert Hall and other Irish cities. Read More
Concert
Hall
JOHN FIELD ROOM, NATIONAL CONCERT HALL
TheGinajazz performed at the National concert Hall on the 22nd of September 2015 at 8 pm..... Gediminas Karkauskas (piano) the brainchild of TheGinajazz teamed up with a master of improvisation the legendary Louis Stewart (guitar) along with Dave Fleming a Double Bass player who really knows how to swing! Joining this line-up is UK based Steve Davis “the most musical of drummers” (Jazzwise). Stewart’s vast experience in playing with some of the world’s greatest jazz musicians means he is always eager to find something new and fresh and the hallmark of TheGinajazz is just that. The Journal of Music Read More
Arts
Club ,
Dublin
After recent highlight performances in the National Concert Hall and Belfast Culture Nights Festival’15, ‘The GinaJazz’ & Louis Stewart come together once again.... Pianist, Gediminas Karkauskas team up with the master of improvisation, the legendary Louis Stewart on guitar along with renowned bassist, Dave Fleming This is mood music at it’s best. The musicianship of pianist Gediminas Karkauskas, from Lithuania and living in Ireland for the last 15 years, appears seamless – but the true jazz lover will appreciate how the “rules” are broken to reshape and re-harmonize jazz standards into truly beautiful music. Read More
Reviews
Magy's Farm, October 2022
From studying jazz piano at the Royal Conservatory at the Hague, to moving to Dublin nearly twenty years ago, and eventually signing to TeddyD Records to release his latest album, ‘Lost Suite’, Gediminas Karkauskas has been perfecting his craft as a jazz communicator, writing music which is open for flexible approaches, launching improvisatory pathways that engage the other musicians in the moment, making for inspiring performances for which transfer of emotional energy is the driving force of how he makes his audiences feel.
His love and enthusiasm for what he plays and indeed, how, spilled over into the room on another memorable night at Magy’s Farm. Gedas (piano), was joined by drummer Riccardo Marenghi and bassist Maciej Bliziński for a truly memorable night, where friendship was at the core for musicians and audience alike, and sincerity underpinned his amazing arrangements of jazz standards and focused interpretation of his own original tunes. Bravo maestro!
Review by Ian Mann, December 28, 2020
Karkauskas is a superb technician, albeit without drawing attention to the fact, and his compositions, though far from simple, are both beautiful and accessible.
A slightly belated look at this solo piano album from Gediminas Karkauskas, a Lithuanian born pianist and composer now based in the Republic of Ireland.
Karkauskas studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague before completing his Masters at Dublin Institute of Technology Conservatory of Music and Drama.
Dublin has remained Karkauskas’ base for the last twenty years but he has continued to perform regularly in mainland Europe, particularly in the Baltic states and notably at the Broma Jazz Festival in his native Lithuania.
Karkauskas has also performed with leading figures on the Irish jazz scene, among them trumpeter Linley Hamilton, drummer Stephen Davis, bassist Dave Fleming and the late, great Louis Stewart (guitar). He has also worked with fellow pianist John Taylor (1942 – 2015).
Karkauskas is a musician with a foot in both the jazz and classical camps. He has cited Debussy, Brahms and Chopin as his favourite classical composers, while his jazz influences include Bill Evans, Horace Silver, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Brad Mehldau, Jaki Byard and Andrew Hill. Despite growing up in the Lithuanian port city of Klaipėda during the Soviet era Karkauskas was first introduced to jazz by his father, who was a fan of such musicians as Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman.
Aside from his musical influences Karkuaskas has also cited the importance of contemporary art as an inspiration for his work.
Released in September 2020 “Lost Suite” represents Karkauskas’ recording début as a leader. He has previously led a trio featuring Davis and Fleming but for this project decided to translate some of his compositions for solo piano.
“I have spent years creating jazz / classical influences with improvisation within a contemporary jazz framework”, Karkauskas explains. “I would say I have become more open to share my music with the listener”.
He continues; “There were ideas that sat in my mind for some time. I was trying to reflect my inner thoughts, that inevitably led to reflecting the world’s music through my own perception. Most of the pieces have very little preparation, it’s mostly relying on momentum, while others have been prepared.”
As Karkauskas has explained the music draws upon both jazz and classical influences with Bill Evans perhaps the most obvious stylistic influence. Karkauskas describes the recording as a “concept album”, despite the fact that “Lost Suite” is also the title of one of the six individual tracks. Certainly a unified mood and stylistic approach characterises an album that has been extremely well received by the international jazz community.
The album commences with “Lost Suite” itself, a nine minute excursion that unfolds slowly and organically, with Karkauskas primarily concerned with expressing moods and emotions, rather than focussing on bravado displays of technique. Karkauskas describes the album as “a journey”, an expression that can also be said to apply to each individual piece. The progression of the harmony on this opening composition is intended to express a “sense of being lost”, but the performance is still clearly focussed and delivers a good balance of light and shade. Despite an underlying sense of darkness the music is still unmistakably beautiful and curiously restful, qualities that have perhaps contributed to the album’s critical success.
“Talking Summer” is more concise, clocking in at around the four minute mark, but retains the essentially pensive mood, the languid nature of Karkauskas’ playing perhaps reminiscent of a humid but relaxing summer afternoon. The pianist’s gentle melodic trills exhibit a classically honed lightness of touch, and although the music is never about ‘showing off’ Karkauskas’ impressive technical facility is never in doubt.
Slightly darker in tone “The Blame Rests” places a greater reliance on minor chords, these contrasting effectively with the pianist’s right hand melodic flourishes. The structure of the piece is unusual, with unexpected variations in meter that help to ensure that the listener’s attention is engaged throughout.
I love the enigmatic nature of the title “Not To Sugar Coat What Has Gone On Here”, a fascinating pianist exploration that finds Karkauskas gently wandering through a consistently intriguing series of musical byways, again deploying far from predictable chords and melodies, to ensure that the listener is keen to follow every step of the way.
The quietly brooding “Alias” introduces a subtle blues tinge to the pianist’s classically inspired ruminations. Apart from its unpredictability Karkauskas’ music is also distinguished by its effective use of space, a quality emphasised by the pinpoint production by Karkauskas and recording engineer Arne Bock. An engineer with an international reputation Bock studied at The Hague at the same time as Karkauskas and the pair have enjoyed a long and fruitful creative relationship.
This quality of spaciousness is even more pronounced on the closing “Take Nothing”, which unfolds slowly, lyrically and organically and which exhibits a truly meditative beauty.
It’s easy to hear just why “Lost Suite” has attracted such favourable attention. Karkauskas is a superb technician, albeit without drawing attention to the fact, and his compositions, though far from simple, are both beautiful and accessible. Indeed it’s the harmonic and rhythmic complexities that help to engage the listener’s attention, but again these are introduced in a manner that sounds unforced and thoroughly organic – there is nothing gratuitous about them at all.
The only criticisms that have been levelled at the album are that it is too consistent in terms of mood, style and pace. Ordinarily this would represent a perfectly valid observation, but the fact that Karkauskas has described “Lost Suite” as a ‘concept’ album with a unified overall mood and theme counters the credence of this statement.
For jazz listeners Bill Evans is the most obvious reference point and evidence of Karkauskas’ classical background is evident throughout. “Lost Suite” represents a considerable success on its own terms, but it would be interesting hear Karkauskas’ playing in a more obviously ‘jazz’ context next time round.
Source: https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/gediminas-karkauskas-lost-suite
Beauty Through Poised Fingertips with Gediminas Karkauskas
Melodic, lush and spiritual are the first three words you might think when you hear the new music by Gediminas Karkauskas in his debut release “Lost Suite.” The accomplished pianist, now based in Ireland and originally from Lithuania, presents six original pieces that describe the finer things in life that money can’t buy. In the title track while the right hand explores new patterns, the left gives a satisfying, wholesome base to the experience. “The Blame Rests” introduces itself with an unsettling interval followed by unexpected chords and riffs that simulate the strum of a harp, steps and missteps, and pleasing harmonies and departures. In a word it’s lovely for its inventiveness. Also full of interesting jumps is “Alias” which is punctuated by bluesy moments and then romps around to a bright finish. “Take Nothing” might be a paean to an ex-lover, sad and reminiscing, its uplifting ending chords bidding goodbye but knowing it’s all going to be okay. An expressive, emotional debut that echoes the solitary experience while being completely right with the universe.
(c) 2020 Debbie Burke
Source and interview at https://debbieburkecreative.com/2020/11/21/beauty-through-poised-fingertips-with-gediminas-karkauskas/
GEDIMINAS KARKAUSKAS, LOST SUITE
A strong statement of intent here from Ireland-based Lithuanian pianist and composer Gediminas Karkauskas who releases this his debut.
A solo piano album is never easy to pull off. It can be too remote or on the other hand too much of a showcase of technique. Karkauskas avoids both pitfalls with a dreamy impressionist approach, reminiscent of Bill Evans as the album opens and which moves into a darker, carefully detailed, world of his own on tracks such as 'Talking Summer' and 'The Blame Rests'.
The album thrives on slow tempi, the pianist lingering over complex chords and subtle mood shifts that keep your interest throughout.
Published: 19 Sep 2020.
Source: https://www.marlbank.net/posts/gediminas-karkauskas-lost-suite