CanadaÕs Kaeshammer makes welcome return

After two sell-out shows at last year’s Galway Arts Festival , jazz pianist and singer Michael Kaeshammer returns to the Róisín Dubh on Thursday, April 14.

Michael’s latest album, Kaeshammer, which was recorded at Toronto’s Drive Shed and Keen Studios in 2010 and produced by Ron Lopata (Jacksoul, Ron Sexsmith), i s a gem, a set of original songs as playful as they are contagious. It blends ingredients from Kaeshammer’s store of jazz, soul, pop and R&B influences.

The German born Canadian initially studied classical piano for seven years in his homeland Germany, before discovering boogie-woogie and stride piano at the age of 13.

He moved to Canada in 1995 and is is now renowned for playing a brand of pop tinged jazz that owes as much to Billy Joel and Paul McCartney as to jazz legends like Professor Longhair and Albert Ammons.

But while Kaeshammer’s fiery style incorporates elements of his early influences – the New Orleans sound of Fats Waller, Art Tatum and James Booker – on tracks like Kisses In Zanzibar and the high-energy, boogie fuelled romp, Rendezvous – he also takes his cue from one of his own all-time favourite records, Robert Palmer’s Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley, recorded in New Orleans.

Tickets for his show on April 14 are €18/€16, doors 8pm.