Ben Goldberg and Friends

Ben Goldberg on clarinet, John Hebert on bass, and Hamir Atwal on drums. "Improvising and some tasty tunes."

“Ben Goldberg has few rivals as one of the most vibrant, flexible, and inventive clarinetists in jazz and improvised music”  – Peter Margasak, Downbeat

“An artist who seems to find beautiful melodies at the end of every path." – Andrew Gilbert, NPR

“One of the greatest clarinetists I’ve ever heard.” – John Zorn

Ben Goldberg at the Maybeck
Sunday, February 28, 2016 at 7:00pm
This concert is $20 General Admission/$10 Students. 

Ben currently composes for and leads the following groups: Unfold Ordinary Mind featuring Nels Cline and Ellery Eskelin; Go Home featuring Charlie Hunter, Ron Miles, and Scott Amendola, “A searching ensemble that welcomes lyrical improvisation while embracing the groove.” (The New Yorker); Ben Goldberg School, a sextet that recently offered the initial workshop performances of Ben’s new piece Come Back Elliott Smith, and the Ben Goldberg Trio with Greg Cohen and Kenny Wollesen. He is also a composer-member of the avant-chamber jazz ensemble Tin Hat; and performs in a duo with pianist Myra Melford called DIALOGUE. Other notable affiliations include plays monk; Myra Melford’s Be Bread; Nels Cline’s New Monastery; Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors; Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom; and Clarinet Thing. The 11- piece Ben Goldberg's Brainchild performs Ben's on-the-spot compositions.
Ben Goldberg grew up in Denver, Colorado. He received his 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 the eminent clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo, and studied with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano.

In 2012 Ben premiered Orphic Machine, a ten movement song-cycle based on the poetical writings of Allen Grossman. Commissioned by Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works and performed by an all-star nine-piece band with Carla Kihlstedt on vocals, the Los Angeles Times calls Orphic Machine “knotted and occasionally spooky composition marked by dazzling interplay.” A Shifting Foundation grant funded the recording of Orphic Machine, released in 2015 by Royal Potato Family / BAG Production Records. All Music Guide says "Orphic Machine is wildly ambitious and sophisticated, but is also graceful, emotionally honest, and accessible. It makes the profound embraceable and, as a result, is a masterpiece."

Other recordings include Unfold Ordinary Mind and Subatomic Particle Homesick Blues (BAG Production, 2013);Go Home (BAG, 2010); Tin Hat’s The Rain is a Handsome Animal (New Amsterdam, 2012); Speech Communication (Tzadik, 2009); Baal: The Book Of Angels vol. 15 (Tzadik, 2010); the door, the hat, the chair, the fact (Cryptogramophone, 2006); Plays Monk (Long Song, 2007); Nels Cline’s New Monastery: a view into the music of Andrew Hill (Cryptogramophone, 2006); Twelve Minor (Avant, 1998); Junk Genius (Knitting Factory Works, 1995); What Comes Before (Tzadik, 1998); and New Klezmer Trio’s Melt Zonk Rewire and Short for Something (Tzadik).

Ben currently composes for and leads the following groups: Unfold Ordinary Mind featuring Nels Cline and Ellery Eskelin; Go Home featuring Charlie Hunter, Ron Miles, and Scott Amendola, “A searching ensemble that welcomes lyrical improvisation while embracing the groove.” (The New Yorker); Ben Goldberg School, a sextet that recently offered the initial workshop performances of Ben’s new piece Come Back Elliott Smith, and the Ben Goldberg Trio with Greg Cohen and Kenny Wollesen. He is also a composer-member of the avant-chamber jazz ensemble Tin Hat; and performs in a duo with pianist Myra Melford called DIALOGUE. Other notable affiliations include plays monk; Myra Melford’s Be Bread; Nels Cline’s New Monastery; Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors; Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom; and Clarinet Thing. The 11- piece Ben Goldberg's Brainchild performs Ben's on-the-spot compositions.