Koun Vincent: Famed Zen Buddhist Jazz Monk Returns to the Music

Nipaluna/Hobart: Six years after leaving a dazzling career as an internationally celebrated jazz pianist for the life of an ordained Buddhist monk, Koun Vincent has announced a return to the keyboard and the national stage with a new Australian tour.

It’s a re-emergence that jazz fans of Vincent’s have been waiting for – but doubted would ever happen. At the time, the musician-turned-monk was adamant that the worlds of Zen training and a touring musician were incompatible. “You can’t do both,” he said at the time, seeking the seclusion of a Japanese monastery.

Prolonged meditation persuaded him that the opposite was true: Jazz and Zen could go together. Both were about being in the moment; each could enhance the practice of the other.

Vincent began giving house concerts of the great composers of the American Songbook – Gershwin, Porter, Ellington, Berlin, Mancini, Kern and others – to small audiences a couple of years ago. The music was so revelatory, and the reception so intense, that Vincent is now ready to take his new clear view of jazz nationwide in a series of solo shows.

Prior to his career pause, (then Tom) Vincent enjoyed an extensive career spanning 30 years. As a jazz pianist and bandleader he performed and recorded in Australia, Europe, Japan and USA alongside artists such as Branford Marsalis and Don Burrows and released eight albums.

Now, the master musician is playing better than ever.

“I’ve found the heart of real jazz,” he says. “I approach my playing with a new power and deeper purpose. Thanks to my monastic experiences, at long last I’ve got the chops to re-examine those great jazz standards and learn something new every time I play, with spontaneity and joy.”

PRAISE FOR KOUN VINCENT PLAYING CLASSIC JAZZ STANDARDS

“You think you know how all these tunes go? When Koun Vincent applies the Zen approach to this music, you’ll need to think again.” (Christopher Lawrence, ABC broadcaster)

"Jules Thief" from Tom Vincent Septet CD, an album of original compositions and arrangements: