Ryan Keberle

Early life and education

Keberle was born in Bloomington, Indiana, to Ann Winterer and Dan Keberle. He grew up in Spokane, Washington, where his father, a trumpeter, teaches jazz studies at Whitworth University, and directs the Whitworth Jazz Ensemble. At four, Keberle was taught to play the piano by his mother, a piano teacher and church choir director, and through the Suzuki Method he learned to play the violin. In fifth grade, at the encouragement of his father, he began to play the trombone. He was inspired by the tradition of the instrument in jazz history, as well as by the horn bands Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Tower of Power, and Earth, Wind & Fire. In high school, he discovered jazz artists including John Coltrane and Dexter Gordon, and would play along with their records.

Keberle continued to play the piano while focused on the trombone. He studied with David Matterne, the principal trombonist for the Spokane Symphony, and as a teenager he performed with the Spokane Youth Symphony and sat in with the Spokane Jazz Orchestra and the Whitworth Jazz Ensemble. The valedictorian of his class, Keberle graduated from Mead High School in 1998.

Following his high school graduation, Keberle enrolled at Whitworth with a double major in physics and music. He transferred to the Manhattan School of Music in 1999, where he studied trombone with Steve Turre and composition with Michael Abene and Manny Albam. As a student at the Manhattan School, Keberle first encountered several musicians he would continue to collaborate with, including the Argentinian bassist and composer Pedro Giraudo. In 2001 — the year he graduated — Keberle was selected as the artistic director for New York City's first youth jazz orchestra, Jazz Band Classic, a program of the New York Symphony, and won the William H. Borden Award for Musical Excellence in Jazz from Manhattan School of Music.

After he earned his undergraduate degree, Keberle was selected to attend Juilliard as a student in their inaugural Jazz Performance program. Studying trombone with Wycliffe Gordon and composition with David Berger, he was one of the first musicians to earn an artist diploma in Jazz Performance from Juilliard.

Career

Keberle played professionally while a student; he supported himself mainly as a pianist during his first four years in New York. Following his graduation, he performed with the David Berger Jazz Orchestra, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis, among others. His compositions "Cylindrically" and "Something Speaking" were performed by the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, and "Slants", a commissioned piece, was performed by the Spokane Jazz Orchestra. Based in Brooklyn, he freelanced as a recording and performing musician in multiple genres — in addition to traditional and avant-garde jazz, Keberle played with Latin, R&B, and rock artists. He was an orchestra member for several Broadway productions, performed in ensembles for television shows, and served as the music director at St. James Catholic Church.

In 2003, he formed the Ryan Keberle Double Quartet. Composed of piano, bass, drums, two trombones, trumpet, french horn, and tuba, the Ryan Keberle Double Quartet's self-titled debut was released on Alternate Side in 2007. It was followed by Heavy Dreaming in 2010. Both albums were critically well-received; Wondering Sound wrote that the records displayed the "wonderful emotional transparency of Keberle's striking compositions and arrangements," and Heavy Dreaming was selected as one of the best records of the year by publications including JazzTimes and Stereophile.

In 2012, after touring internationally with Sufjan Stevens, Keberle formed Catharsis, a pianoless acoustic quartet, with Mike Rodriguez on trumpet, Jorge Roeder on bass and Eric Doob on drums. They released their first album, Music Is Emotion, on Alternate Side in 2013. The album was described by the Los Angeles Times as "a potent blend of cinematic sweep and lush, ear-grabbing melodies." All About Jazz wrote: "In just over a decade, Keberle has become one of the most in-demand trombonists on the scene, and he's done so by using his considerable technique to communicate with, rather than play at, the people who encounter his horn. Keberle keeps wide-ranging company, working with everybody from Latin luminary Ivan Lins to compositional queen Maria Schneider to pop/R&B superstar Alicia Keys, but his raison d'être isn't diversification; he's all about touching the soul through sound means."

In 2014, Catharsis signed to Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music. They released their second album, Into the Zone, in September, adding vocalist Camila Meza. Azul Infinito, an album inspired by Keberle's experience working with South American composers, was released in March 2016. "Keberle might seem like an unlikely candidate for jazz stardom—he is primarily a brilliant trombonist, after all — but his band is propulsive and infectious, grooving and gorgeous," PopMatters wrote in a May 2016 review.

Keberle has directed the jazz program at Hunter College since 2004. In addition to other colleges and universities, Keberle has conducted trombone improvisation clinics at Berklee College of Music, the Brubeck Institute, Cornish College of the Arts, Dartmouth College, New York University, the Royal Academy of Music in London, Cork College of Music in Ireland, and the Conservatory del Liceu in Barcelona. He has led clinics throughout the New York City public school system as part of the American Composer Orchestra's educational outreach program, and has guest-conducted local and all-region jazz bands. Keberle has taught privately since 1999.

Personal life

Keberle and his wife, Erica, live in Brooklyn, New York.

Awards and recognition

As Ryan Keberle and Catharis

As Ryan Keberle Double Quartet

Selected recordings