Aya Sekine Trio

Showtimes are at 7:30p & 9:30p. Doors open at 5pm for dinner. Seating begins at 6pm for “Dinner & a Show”. The second show starts seating at 9pm. Aya Sekine was born in Minoh City, Osaka Prefecture. Jazz pianist, improvisational musician, composer/arranger, educator, visual artist, and community practitioner. The Aya Sekine Trio features Detroit’s own Jaribu Shahid on bass and Jonathan Barahal Taylor on drums. The repertoire includes Aya’s original compositions written across different parts of the world(Singapore, Japan, NY) alongside deeply personal reinterpretations of jazz standards—approached with a strong narrative voice and rhythmic depth rooted in the Black music tradition, and her background as percussion player. A pianist who captivates international audiences with his flexible and diverse playing style, described as “genre-bending,” while rooted in bebop and straight-ahead jazz. Rooted in the context of Black American music, he has built his own unique musical world through an expression that emphasizes rhythm, emotion, and the spur of the moment. Growing up surrounded by music, art, and fashion, he spent a long time in Singapore due to his father’s job transfer. The sensibilities nurtured in the multicultural environment of Southeast Asia form the foundation of his current multifaceted expression. Influenced by his music-loving older brother, he became familiar with various types of music, playing percussion in a brass band and in a rock band before becoming devoted to highly improvisational music, while simultaneously beginning to listen to soul, funk, Motown, and blues. After studying jazz at Berklee College of Music, he moved to New York in 1994 and became active in the diverse local music scene. Since 2002, he has been based in Singapore, where he is active in a wide range of fields including performance, education, and community building. He has made significant contributions to the development of the local jazz environment through the establishment of live music at the live music venue “Blu Jaz Cafe” and the founding of the non-profit organization We Love Jazz SG . He has also hosted the community-based improvisation workshop “Jungle Jam” for many years, creating a space for musical exchange that transcends genres and experience levels. In 2019, her work related to International Jazz Day was recognized, and she was invited by the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz and UNESCO to perform at the Global Host Celebration in Melbourne. Since 2018, she has expanded her expressive domain to include visual arts, developing her inner emotions and thoughts into works of art. In 2022, she left Singapore, obtained permanent residency in the United States as an EB-1 (Education for the Arts), and after a period of activity in Japan, moved to Detroit, Michigan, USA in 2024. Currently, she collaborates with prominent local musicians such as Wendell Harrison, performs at the Detroit Jazz Festival and various other festivals, and works as a workshop instructor. She also teaches at the Michigan State University Community Music School Detroit (CMSD). He also established Double Strut LLC in Detroit, which handles management and label functions , and released the album “High!” as the improvisational duo Junk Jazz. He also runs “Ayaschool,” a series that focuses on the process before musicians present their work, and “Brazilian Music Study Club Detroit,” a platform for Brazilian music lovers that anyone can join, continuously developing practical spaces that focus on the process and improvisation of music.