[… Art Hirahara’s percussive piano is just as muscular…]
–J Hunter, All About Jazz

[…San Francisco transplant Hirahara is the session’s most ‘out-of-nowhere’ revelation, so potent a soloist and colorist
it seems at times as though it’s his date…]
–Phil DiPietro, All About Jazz

[…the exceptional Art Hirahara on piano and Rhodes…]
–David Adler, Jazz Times

[…an astute, well-traveled pianist making a breakout statement…]
–Nate Chinen, The New York Times

[…a first-rate rhythm trio headed by the excellent pianist Art Hirahara…]
–Rex Reed, New York Observer

[…Art Hirahara on piano turn(s) in swinging deftly crafted solos…I thoroughly enjoyed the great feeling
from each of lyrical and fluent solos served up by… Hirahara]
–Winthrop Bedford, Jazz Improv

[Talent leaping into craft marks this pianist’s tightly woven compositions.]
–Scott Adler, San Francisco Magazine

[The program said ‘Art Hirahara Trio,’ and that was enough to earn a priority spot on my schedule… Hirahara’s approach seemed to change from minute to minute in a wonderfully complex mélange.]
–Forrest Bryant, allaboutjazz.com

[…But the [Monterey Jazz] festival opened as scheduled Friday night with the Art Hirahara Sextet at the outdoor Garden Stage. The San Jose native’s ensemble lifted spirits and blew away the clouds of worry.]
–Yoshi Kato, San Jose Mercury News

[…Among those on hand is Hirahara, an excellent young pianist who’s rapidly coming into his own. Born and raised in San Jose, Hirahara has developed a harmonically rich compositional style that’s full of lush voicings and lithe melodic lines.]
–Andrew Gilbert, San Jose Mercury News

[One of many in the CalArts diaspora to land in the Bay Area, pianist Hirahara arrives with a sure sense of jazz composition. Rocking both sides of the Bay in Idris Ackamoor’s Cultural Odyssey and Oakland Asian Cultural Center’s Asian Crisis, Hirahara has liquid chops.

Able to make any and every musical style flow together, he frequently shifts rhythmic currents beneath his players, uncovering new wealth even in heavily mined veins such as the Kern-Hammerstein classic “All the Things You Are”.

On his sextet’s debut CD, “Edge of This Earth,” Hirahara demonstrates an equal ability to step out and span the globe in solos that range from plangent splashes of Blue Note to the percussive, microtonal quality of bop’s hard reign upon the keyboards…]
–Aaron Shuman, East Bay Express

[Keys master Art Hirahara steps forward with a splendid new CD…Hirahara has served as an official “jazz ambassador” to the Middle East and South Asia, has played locally and puts his unique spin on influences ranging from Billy Strayhorn and Tom Harrell to Herbie Hancock and Brad Mehldau.]
–Derk Richardson, San Francisco Bay Guardian

[… Hirahara’s tunes are excellent vehicles for his band… Hirahara is very forceful on piano, percussively beating out notes from the keyboard to set the tone for the band. He develops his solos using a plethora of notes, and his improvisations transmit substantial energy that becomes motivation for the band to reciprocate in kind… Hirahara has taken a format that has been exhaustively explored in Jazz, yet he manages to breathe fresh life into it with his enthusiastic playing and formidable compositions. It is a solid outing.]
–Frank Rubolino, Cadence, vol. 27, no. 9

[Art Hirahara plays with a kind of effortless grace as to make every song dance on your eardrums]
–John Ephlant, DOWNBEAT

[Art Hirahara…puts his considerable chops to use both compositionally and as a piano player on his first self produced CD…
Hirahara gives plenty of room for his players to interact with the feel of the tunes and with each other, giving the ensemble more than just a ‘made in the studio’ sound.]
–Michael Handler, jazzwest.com