Jazz Articles about Carmen Staaf

About Carmen Staaf

Album Review

The New York quartet ContraPunctus eases into the third track on its 2026 self-titled debut with about 15 seconds of musical suggestion. Bassist Gui Duvignau and drummer Hamir Atwal respond to pianist Carmen Staaf's gentle Fender Rhodes melody with a tempo that starts at a comfortable clip. Staaf eloquently establishes the melody in the next few seconds--Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington's “Caravan"--that clarinetist Mike McGinnis picks up and continues. McGinnis and Staaf trade the tune's theme as the quartet establishes an elastic, rollicking synergy. ...

Album Review

Noah Garabedian: Quartets and Solos

Read "Quartets and Solos" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
December 27, 2025

If ever an album were in need of liner notes--or at least some further clarification--it is this one, Quartets and Solos, by New York-based bassist Noah Garabedian's quartet; or quintet, if one includes album producer Samuel Adams' special effects and programming. The playlist consists of 13 songs. According to a press release, they alternate “between eight conceptually stand-alone quartet compositions...and sharply focused solo features written specifically for each musician (including Adams)." There are two such showcases for every ...

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. ...

Radio & Podcasts

Carmen Staaf, Vincent Peirani, Rachel Eckroth, SML & More

by Ludovico Granvassu
October 19, 2025

Enjoy a few more memorable finds from our weekly listening so you can go straight to the heart of today's vibrant West Coast, East Coast and European jazz scenes.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Vincent Peirani “Time Reflections: Clessidra" Living Being IV (Time Reflections) (ACT) 0:16 Host talks 8:12 Ballaké Sissoko, Vincent Segal, Vincent Peirani, Emile Parisien “Amir" Sou Kora (No Format!) 8:59 Host talks 15:02 Carmen Staaf ...

Play This!

Carmen Staaf: Monk's Mood

by John Chacona
September 26, 2025

There is an iconic image in Charlotte Zwerin's 1988 documentary film Thelonious Monk: Straight, No Chaser that shows Monk, cigarette in hand, silently contemplating a misty Manhattan skyline. As heard on her recording Sounding Line (Sunnyside Records, 2025), Carmen Staaf's arrangement of “Monk's Mood" that begins with Dylan Vado's spectral bowed vibes perfectly captures the soft-focus melancholy of the image. That Staaf's piano style bears little resemblance to Monk's speaks to the enduring influence of his music, the ...

Radio & Podcasts

Meet Carmen Staaf

by Cheryl K.
January 27, 2025

In this hour, an interview with pianist, educator, and Musical Director for NEA Jazz Master vocalist and actress Dee Dee Bridgewater, Carmen Staaf. Playlist Brian Molley Quartet with The Asin Langa Ensemble “Journeys In Hand In Hand" from Journeys (BGMM) 5:24 Alexa Torres “When the Wind Breaks the Chime" from IN SITU (Alexa Torres) 6:58 Jenny Scheinman “The Sea Also Rises" from All Species Parade (Royal Potato Family) 1:48 Carmen Staaf Trio “Prospect" from Eye to Eye (Fractamondi) ...