Manu Koch & Filtron M Keyboardist, pianist and composer Manu Koch belongs to a New York-based, transnational tribe of artists who are reshaping the contours of contemporary groove-based music in the 21st century. His debut album, Triple Life, released in March 2011, is an eclectic genre border-crossing experience that distills his multiple-dimensional musical life as a performer into one funky, jazz-inflected amalgam of global electronic music. The arrival of this musical project also marks the beginning of his role as a bandleader and his live band collective Filtron M. Manu began honing his craft in Baar, Switzerland, where he spent his early years enmeshed in the European classical tradition. By age 16, with a solid technical background, he gravitated towards jazz and other contemporary music. Only a few years later he decided to take the leap to the US where he quickly became an in-demand keyboardist/pianist in the multicultural Boston area, performing and recording with a broad range of bands from Malian kora master/vocalist Balla Tounkara, the Caribbean jazz band Ron Reid & Sun Steel to the Wally's Café funk house band and various Brazilian projects which featured well-known instrumentalists such as Adam Deitch, Charles Haynes, Anat Cohen and Bob Moses to name a few. Since his relocation to New York in 2000 he has continued and expanded on his early work with groove-based and popular music artists. He recorded and shared the stage with prominent jazz contemporaries Lionel Loueke and Avishai E. Cohen, and performed with a wide range of the New York-based Brazilian pantheon. Manu has toured with afro-pop star Angélique Kidjo and also performed with the groups of Cape Verdean vocalist Fantcha and Miles Davis/Santana bassist Benny Rietveld. He is the regular keyboardist for Nigerian talking drum master Kofo The Wonderman, and frequently collaborates with urban folk and jazz vocalist/guitarist KJ Denhert and Moroccan jazz vocalist Malika Zarra. Since 2011 he has toured internationally with the New York Gypsy All-Stars and has become a vital element in singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer's Tomas Donckér's 'Global Soul' movement with his participation in the critically acclaimed 'Power Of The Trinity' project. $8.00 - $28.00