MICHAEL KAESHAMMER has been called Canada’s triple-threat combo of piano virtuosity, vocal ability and charisma. This potent combination has earned the Toronto based artist international critical acclaim and a loyal and growing fan base.
Kaeshammer's performances are pure delight and his energy knows no bounds. He has piano technique to burn and to his audience’s delight has an acrobatic way with a grand piano. When Kaeshammer performs, it’s obvious he’s having a ball, playing superlative boogie-woogie, blues, jazz, and pop cross-over material, drawn mostly from an impressive list of standards and his catalogue of studio recordings.
A reviewer of last year’s performance at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival noted: “drawing on a rock solid knowledge of the early piano greats, Kaeshammer does more than play the way they did. He entertains with a capital “E” the way they did... he taps into a part of music that's almost lost, connecting deeply with the audience on a gut level, so they are no longer just spectators in the music-making.” Nightly, Kaeshammer and his band have the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands and never do they leave with anything short of a standing ovation.
A night with Michael and his band isn’t the kind of show where you just sit, watch and applaud politely every now and then. Their goal isn’t to intimidate you with the scholarly depth of their music, it’s to entertain, inform and include you – A wild ride with no fixed destination except where he feels he and the crowd want to go.
“For me the performance is as much about the energy coming off the stage as the energy coming from the audience. It’s about being myself, writing from the heart and showing my love for life. That’s what I want to convey. After the show, people ask me, ‘do you really have that much fun?’ And I say ‘you don’t know the half of it. It’s even more exhilarating than it looks’.”