Ben Goldberg at the Maybeck
Tuesday, June 13, 2017 at 7:00pm
This concert is $25 General Admission
Seating is limited. Get your required online reservation here.
Beginning in 1992, when his group New Klezmer Trio "kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music" (SF Chronicle), clarinetist Ben Goldberg has established himself as “one of the most vibrant, flexible, and inventive clarinetists in jazz and improvised music” (Downbeat), “an artist who seems to find beautiful melodies at the end of every path." (NPR). Through his many bands and compositional projects The New York Times has noted Ben’s music for “a feeling of joyous research into the basics of polyphony and collective improvising,” and he was named #1 Rising Star Clarinetist in the Downbeat Critics Poll in both 2011 and 2013. In 2015 Ben released Orphic Machine, a song-cycle with lyrics from the “speculative poetics” of Allen Grossman, performed by a nine piece ensemble including Nels Cline, Ron Miles, Myra Melford, and Ches Smith, and sung by violinist Carla Kihlstedt. The LA Times called Orphic Machine “knotted and occasionally spooky composition marked by dazzling interplay.”
Pianist Cory Smythe engages a broad repertoire of new, classical, and improvised music. He has presented his work in recent appearances at the Newport Jazz Festival, the Approximation Festival, the Takts Festival, NYC’s Jazz Gallery, and Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. Smythe has performed widely as part of the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Tyshawn Sorey Trio, and in recital appearances with violinist Hilary Hahn. His latest album A U T O TROPHS (released in 2017 on the Notart label) was called “dazzling” by the Chicago Reader.
Bassist Stephan Crump launched his solo performance career as an invited artist at the 2009 International Society of Bassists conference and has since released several recordings documenting his duo collaborations with alto saxophonist Steve Lehman, pianist James Carney, and guitarist Mary Halvorson. His all-string Rosetta Trio, with Jamie Fox and Liberty Ellman, is working toward their fourth album, while his Rhombal quartet, with Tyshawn Sorey, Ellery Eskelin, and Adam O’Farrill, recently released its eponymous debut.