Aaron Goldberg Trio

Aaron Goldberg – Piano

Bass – TBA

Kendrick Scott – Drums

“For over 20 years, pianist Aaron Goldberg has set himself apart as one of the most scintillating performers in jazz,” hails JazzTimes. Goldberg is widely heralded as one of the art form’s most compelling pianists, both leading his own trio and collaborating with such brilliant icons as Joshua Redman, Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Guillermo Klein and many more. Simultaneously swinging and embracing risk, his stylistically fluid, singular voice reveals that jazz is a tradition of innovation.

Goldberg became a jazz devotee in high school as a student at Milton Academy in Boston. He was introduced to the African-American art form by bassist and master educator Bob Sinicrope, and at age 16 began study with saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi.  As Aaron puts it, “At first improvisation was a mystery and a puzzle, but soon it became a profound inner and outer journey as life and music entwined.”  After receiving awards from Berklee College of Music and Downbeat Magazine, he moved to New York City at 17 to attend The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.  Devoting himself entirely to music for the first time, he won the NFAA Recognition and Talent Search and IAJE Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Fellowship, attending classes by day and performing in NYC clubs by night, inspired by NYC’s myriad living masters.

After spending a year at The New School, Aaron enrolled at Harvard College and began a cross-disciplinary program in philosophy, psychology and the history of science.  He graduated magna cum laude in 1996 with a concentration in Mind, Brain and Behavior.  While at Harvard he juggled academics with an equally intense musical docket.  At age 18 he was discovered by the inimitable vocalist Betty Carter and became a founding member of Carter’s famed Jazz Ahead throughout his college years.  He performed locally with Boston legends Jerry Bergonzi, Alan Dawson, and Bill Pierce, played every weekend at Wally’s Café and spent summers in NYC on the bandstand with up-and-coming talents such as Mark Turner and Omer Avital.

Aaron promptly moved back to New York after college, continuing his ascent in bands led by a cross-generational array of icons including Al Foster, Freddie Hubbard, Nicholas Payton, Stefon Harris, Tom Harrell, and Gregory Tardy among others.  In late 1997 he formed his first trio with bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland, a widely acclaimed empathic unit that would perform and record consistently for the next two decades and leave their mark upon a generation of musicians.

Beginning in early 1998 Aaron began to garner worldwide attention touring and recording with the Joshua Redman Quartet, marking the beginning of a longstanding artistic collaboration and friendship that endures today.  In 2004 he began a four-year tenure with guitar guru Kurt Rosenwinkel, and in 2005 toured extensively with Wynton Marsalis’s quintet as well as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.  Despite this demanding schedule Aaron earned an M.A. in Philosophy at Tufts University in 2010 under Daniel Dennett, commuting for class and writing papers while on the road.  Over the past decade he has toured extensively with his own Trio as well as the Joshua Redman Quartet, carving time for collaborations with some of his other favorite artists including Cecile McLorin Salvant, Ron Carter, Joe Lovano, Peter Bernstein, Camila Meza, Ravi Coltrane, Carl Allen, Madeleine Peyroux, John Ellis and Eli Degibri.

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