Jazz Articles about Ben Goldberg

About Ben Goldberg

Album Review

Geof Bradfield, Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Dana Hall: Open Or Close

Read "Open Or Close" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
October 21, 2026

A quartet of notable jazz artists--two from Midwestern Illinois, the others imported from the West Coast--venture far out on a limb to spruce up Open or Close, recorded in November 2025 at Chicago's popular Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. The foursome obviously had a game plan, and the audience at the Green Mill seems to have been on board with that. But when said plan consists for the most part of drab and disorderly melodies and unwieldy ...

Album Review

Geof Bradfield / Myra Melford / Ben Goldberg / Dana Hall: Open Or Close

Read "Open Or Close" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 5, 2026

Ornette Coleman may come to mind at the beginning of the spin of Open Or Close. This is understandable. The title song, which opens the set, is from Coleman's pen. Additionally, the jazz collective at work here--reedmen Geof Bradfield and Ben Goldberg, pianist Myra Melford and drummer Dana Hall play loose and free, à la Ornette, with a lot of seat-of-the-pants energy. The sound has a common thread strung out between Coleman's 1968 Blue Note Records album New York Is ...

Radio & Podcasts

Ben Goldberg, Dave Holland & Lily Finnegan

by Maurice Hogue
August 24, 2026

Two big projects are on the bill in this episode. Clarinetist Ben Goldberg's fascination with the number 8 (his birthday is August 8th and there are eight letters in his names) drives his new 8 X 8 Collection, eight albums created with different ensembles. You'll hear music from three of those new recordings. You'll also hear music from bassist Dave Holland's first box set, Freedom Call; it's out on Edition Records and features unreleased material from performances by his quartet, ...

Album Review

Carmen Staaf: Sounding Line

Read "Sounding Line" reviewed by Vic Albani

by Vic Albani
December 16, 2025

Carmen Staaf è una forza emergente della scena musicale di New York e, più in generale, del panorama jazz internazionale. Pianista originaria di Seattle--allieva di Danilo Perez--ha suonato e registrato con alcuni dei musicisti più influenti della nostra epoca. È stata ascoltata al Village Vanguard, al Blue Note, allo SFJAZZ e in numerosi festival di primo piano in tutto il mondo, tra cui Newport, Monterey, Montreux e il North Sea Jazz Festival, pur rimanendo per lungo tempo poco citata da ...

Album Review

Carmen Staaf: Sounding Line

Read "Sounding Line" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
October 22, 2025

Thelonious Monk (1917 -1982) was often grouped with the bebop pianists of the late 1940s and early 1950s. But he was not bop. He was a pianistic world unto itself. Quirky, dissonant, often playful. Mary Lou Williams (1910 -1981) did not fit the bop category either. She came in before bop's advent. Her music was stylistically closer to Duke Ellington's eloquence, sass and swing. Bop aside, pianist Carmen Staaf heard a musical kinship between these two 20th-century contemporaries. ...

Album Review

Samo Salamon Ra Kalam Bob Moses Orchestra: Dream Suites vol. 1

Read "Dream Suites vol. 1" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
July 21, 2025

Basta scorrere i nomi dei musicisti coinvolti nell'operazione per capire di quale rappresentatività per una data scena della più creativa e verace attualità jazzistica “unga" questo assolutamente notevole album cofirmato dal chitarrista sloveno Samo Salamon e dal batterista newyorchese Bob Moses. Lo compongono tre soli ampi brani (dai tredici minuti alla mezz'ora appena scarsa) incisi nel novembre 2023 e fondati sulla pratica della libera improvvisazione (non si parla neppure di conduction, in questo caso), raggiungendo una dimensione formale assolutamente invidiabile, ...

Radio & Podcasts

Ben Goldberg, Anna Webber, and Sarah Hanahan

by Jerome Wilson
January 29, 2025

This show features 2024 music from Ben Goldberg, Anna Webber, and Sarah Hanahan as well as older music from Helen Merrill and Lee Morgan. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Charles Tolliver Music Inc. “Impact" from Live at the Captain's Cabin (Reel to Real) 1:19 Bill Charlap Trio “Sometimes I'm Happy" from And Then Again (Blue Note) 7:54 Host ...