Talking Tunes With - Tarek Yamani

The self-taught Lebanese jazz pianist on his upcoming performance, influences and love of heavy metal.

How would you describe your music in your own words?

It’s not so easy to describe because it is a mixture of more than one genre. The soul of the music is jazz, but since I’m from Lebanon I bring the Arabic spices – if you want – into my music.

We read you first heard jazz music at the age of 19. Is that true?

I don’t think it was the first time ever, but that moment at 19 made me feel as if I was struck by lightning. It was a very strong feeling when I heard a record by Herbie Hancock called The New Standard. I heard it by chance, I was in the record store and the guy behind the counter put it on for me because he saw me fooling around in the jazz section. The feeling I got was very intense and I immediately knew this was the music I wanted to dedicate my life to.