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Aaron Goldberg, John Coltrane and more

By Joe Dimino

This week's episode of Neon Jazz opens with At the Edge of the World, the latest album by gifted New York City-based jazz pianist Aaron Goldberg. During the rest of the episode we feature music ranging from the feisty veteran Betty Carter to the richly talented Kansas City saxophonist Ernest Melton from his highly anticipated album The Time of Slave Is Over. Also featured are, among others, the great Don Friedman, Ken Thomson, James Francies, John Fedchock and old masters ...

Aaron Goldberg: At The Edge Of The World

By Glenn Astarita

One interesting aspect of this recording relates to eminent pianist Aaron Goldberg (Kurt Rosenwinkel, Joshua Redman) reuniting with cutting-edge drummer, Leon Parker in Paris. Back in the 1990s, the artists' connected for a gig, but Goldberg was initially indoctrinated to the drummer's performances with pianists, Jacky Terrasson, Brad Mehldau and other notables. But as the press release notes, Parker moved to France in 2001 and took a self-imposed sabbatical from playing. At the peak of his notoriety, he dropped out ...

Aaron Goldberg Trio at @exuberance

By Geno Thackara

Aaron Goldberg Trio @exuberance jny: Philadelphia, PA November 23, 2018 It was a rollicking evening set full of jaunty rhythms and good humor. Aaron Goldberg clearly relished the rich sound of the Steinway and the feel of the room. A packed crowd had come out to unwind at the end of Black Friday--probably the fullest audience this two-year-old concert series has had to date--and the affair felt like the friendliest informal holiday ...

Aaron Goldberg: Exploring the Now

By Luke Seabright

Aaron Goldberg is a jazz pianist and composer based in New York City. He's released five albums with his trio, featuring Reuben Rogers on bass and Eric Harland on drums. His album The Now, recorded with that same rhythm section and featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel on guitar, was released in 2015 to critical acclaim. As well as being very respected solo artist, Aaron has been a frequent collaborator with many of jazz's greatest names, such as Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis and ...

Aaron Goldberg / Ali Jackson Jr. / Omer Avital: Yes!

By Raul d'Gama Rose

The strains of wistful longing are almost palpable right through the length and breadth of Yes!, a remarkable album by a remarkable trio. Pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Omer Avital and drummer Ali Jackson Jr. play with such empathy that they appear of one mind, body and soul. This is the stuff that significant music has been made of for decades, which is why this trio sounds as if it were raising the ghost of those of the great Ahmad Jamal. ...

Aaron Goldberg and Guillermo Klein: Bienestan

By Raul d'Gama Rose

There might actually have been a universe called “Bienestan" and it may have existed for as long as Guillermo Klein. The rich sonic topography of this undiscovered place is just emerging. It is a place of oceans of sound, with energetic waves that make their rhythmic way to lap upon a shore that glistens with all manner of richly harmonized melodies. The very air on this universe is thick with reports of complex rhythms bounced across many interstellar regions from ...

The Aaron Goldberg Quartet At The Village Vanguard

By Dan Bilawsky

Aaron Goldberg QuartetVillage VanguardNew York, NYFebruary 3, 2011 Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night could keep pianist Aaron Goldberg from his appointed rounds at the Village Vanguard. While Goldberg's opening night met with all of the aforementioned conditions, and a few other treats that the weather gods saw fit to bring down upon the people, things had settled down by the third evening of the engagement and his augmented trio was in ...

Aaron Goldberg: Home

By Raul d'Gama Rose

Home by the young pianist Aaron Goldberg, is a gorgeous album of songs. The music here proffers many moods. It is sharp, and probes the density of emotions--from happiness, and one's unique identity, to the loss of both. It is a poignant search for a home for the heart, the soul and the restless mind. The original music is brave and although performed by a trio (or quartet) has a feel of being conceived on a large canvas of colors ...

Aaron Goldberg: Growing as a Band Leader

By Joao Moreira dos Santos

Listening to Worlds (Sunnyside, 2006) makes one want to talk to the man behind the music. That's why AAJ contributor João Moreira dos Santos decided to meet Aaron Goldberg at the Hot Clube de Portugal, in Lisbon, determined to both find out more about this talented young pianist/composer/arranger and to hear his music live. His show drove the audience crazy, particularly aspiring young jazzmen, who reacted instantaneously to the song “Lambada de Serpente, an original ballad by Djavan that Goldberg ...

Aaron Goldberg: Worlds

By Jeff Dayton-Johnson

Man, am I glad that pianist Aaron Goldberg and I never tried to apply for the same job. I'm not a musician, but you should see this guy's CV. While he was double-majoring at Harvard in history and science plus mind, brain and behavior, he was working with Betty Carter, gigging weekends in Boston and winning all kinds of awards, including the formidable-sounding Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Fellowship. After graduation (magna cum laude), he moved to New York and played with ...

Aaron Goldberg: Unfolding

By Jack Bowers

I’ve heard a number of masterful young pianists recently, and here’s another one. Like any perceptive keyboard artist, Aaron Goldberg writes poetry with his fingertips, evoking the same feelings of warmth and desire, sadness and joy that are common to the written or spoken word. Unfolding, Goldberg’s second J Curve album, consists of seven of his compositions, John Coltrane’s “Equinox” and Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life.” It’s a picturesque and eventful journey on which he’s accompanied ...

Aaron Goldberg: Unfolding

By Jim Santella

Impressionism drives the jazz piano trio. Aren't we all storytellers? Listeners' interpretations can vary, and that's what makes art special. Just let yourself go.

On his second recording as leader, Aaron Goldberg unfolds seven original stories and two classic pieces. His trio works in close proximity, with an intuitive feel. There's a fair amount of freedom for each artist. Bass and drums provide independent lines that complement the pianist's thoughts. Goldberg, 27, shares a thorough understanding of the blues, Latin ...