Occupation(s) Musician, composer Name Ben Goldberg Instruments clarinet Music group Tin Hat (Since 2005) | Associated acts Tin Hat Genres Jazz, Free jazz, Klezmer Website bengoldberg.net | |
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Born August 8, 1959 (age 64) ( 1959-08-08 ) Origin Denver, Colorado, United States Role Composer · bengoldberg.net Albums Orphic Machine, Unfold Ordinary Mind, Subatomic Particle Homesick, Go Home, The Sad Machinery of Spring Similar People Myra Melford, Scott Amendola, Carla Kihlstedt, Ches Smith, Kenny Wollesen | ||
A neon jazz interview with jazz clarinetist composer ben goldberg
Ben Goldberg is an American clarinet player and composer.
Contents
- A neon jazz interview with jazz clarinetist composer ben goldberg
- Michael formanek ben goldberg hamir atwal vamp art oakland
- Early life and education
- Career
- Awards and honors
- Discography
- References
Michael formanek ben goldberg hamir atwal vamp art oakland
Early life and education
He grew up in Denver, Colorado. Goldberg grew up playing clarinet, playing in school bands, and has an undergraduate music degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master of Arts in composition from Mills College. He was a pupil of clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo, and studied with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano. Interested in the intersection between jazz (the music) and clarinet (the instrument), Goldberg started exploring the rich clarinet traditions found in klezmer music.
Career
After a stint with the Bay Area band The Klezmorim, he branched out and created his own band, the New Klezmer Trio, named after the New Tango Quintet, with Dan Seamans and Kenny Wollesen. This was the first of many ensembles that Goldberg would lead and/or participate in, primarily in and around the Bay Area. The New Klezmer Trio has produced three albums and the free improvisation on "Masks and Faces" was described as having "kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music." Goldberg's musicality is inspiring, to audiences and to his fellow musicians; "Sometimes the most influential musicians are the ones who don't call much attention to themselves. Take Berkeley clarinetist Ben Goldberg, who for the past two decades has quietly inspired some of the Bay Area's most creative musicians."
In addition to composing for and playing in the Ben Goldberg Quintet, he has performed in the groups Tin Hat, Plays Monk, Myra Melford's Be Bread, Nels Cline's New Monastery, Afterlife Music Radio, and Go Home. The eleven-piece Ben Goldberg's Brainchild performs his on-the-spot compositions.
Goldberg has played with Bill Frisell, Don Byron, Ellery Eskelin, Jenny Scheinman, John Zorn, Mark Dresser, Mark Feldman, Miya Masaoka, Roswell Rudd, Steven Bernstein, Vijay Iyer, Wayne Horvitz, and Zeena Parkins.
Goldberg is also the founder of the music label BAG Production.
Recently Goldberg has branched out into songwriting. His "Orphic Machine" project, largely commissioned by Chamber Music America, premiered at the Jewish Music Festival in March 2012 and was also performed in Los Angeles, California. The song-cycle is based on the writings of Allen Grossman and, for one critic, "the piece's thoughtful, sprawling compositions course through such a variety of styles and open-ended impulses that it would be tempting to dub this a new kind of world music." Regarding songwriting and composing, in a 2010 profile piece in All About Jazz, Goldberg said, "I don't just want to give people something that they can appreciate or understand, or that makes them think, or something like that. I used to kind of feel that that's what I wanted to do, but that's not what I want anymore. I want to give people something that they can love."
Awards and honors
In 2011, Goldberg was named the No. 1 Rising Star Clarinetist by the Down Beat Critic's Poll.
Discography
As sideman
With Nels Cline
With Kris Davis
With Jamie Saft