The Swiss pianist, composer and producer Nik Bärtsch founded his prog-jazz band in Zurich, in 2001. Ronin’s music combines various musical styles including funk, new classical music and elements of Japanese ritual music. The insistent rhythms also suggest the minimalism of Steve Reich. Bärtsch has called their style “zen-funk.”

The band played in Vancouver, at Fox Cabaret, earlier this year, leaving a highly appreciative audience. That show occurred just after Ronin played Tennessee’s prestigious Big Ears Festival, about which a SPIN reporter writes: “My favourite set from the entire four-day event – and probably one of my top shows ever – came Thursday evening with Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin.”

And Echoes.org agrees: “One of the most uplifting concerts of the 2024 Big Ear Festival was Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin. Bathed in stage smoke, Ronin seemed like high priests of minimalism and the mystic.

Raving about a concert in Brooklyn, Red Hook Star Review writes: “on paper, Ronin is a standard quartet of reeds, keyboards, bass, and drums. What they play though is both unique and universal….what you hear is astonishingly funky and hip.”

This show is a co-presentation with Rickshaw Theatre.
Tickets are $46.50 advance /$56.50 at the door

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