Ben Goldberg

Ben Goldberg is an American clarinet player and composer.

Ben Goldberg
Background information
Born (1959-08-08) August 8, 1959
Denver, Colorado, United States
GenresJazz, free jazz, klezmer
Occupation(s)Musician, composer
Instrument(s)Clarinet
LabelsBAG Production
Websitebengoldberg.net

Career

In the early 1990s, Ben Goldberg performed alongside electric bassist Dan Seamans and percussionist Kenny Wollesen as the New Klezmer Trio.[1] They went on to produce 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 has influenced and inspired local musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Goldberg is also the founder of the music label BAG Production.[2]

Recently Goldberg has branched out into songwriting.[3] His "Orphic Machine" project, largely commissioned by Chamber Music America, was performed in Los Angeles.[4] 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".[4] 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."[5]

In 2011, Goldberg was named the No. 1 Rising Star Clarinetist by the Down Beat Critic's Poll.[6]

Discography

As leader
  • New Klezmer Trio – Masks and Faces (Tzadik, 1991)
  • The Relative Value of Things (33 1/4), with Kenny Wollesen (1993)
  • Junk Genius – Junk Genius (Knitting Factory Works) with John Schott, Trevor Dunn, and Kenny Wollesen (1995)
  • New Klezmer Trio – Melt Zonk Rewire (Tzadik, 1995)
  • Light at the Crossroads (Songlines) with Marty Ehrlich (1997)
  • What Comes Before (Tzadik), reflections on post-tonal harmonic structures with John Schott and Michael Sarin (1998)
  • Twelve Minor (Avant) (1998)
  • Ben Goldberg Trio – Here By Now (Music and Arts) with Trevor Dunn and Elliot Humberto Kavee (1998)
  • Junk Genius – Ghost of Electricity (Songlines) (1999)
  • New Klezmer Trio – Short for Something (Tzadik, 2000)
  • Almost Never (nuscope) with John Schott and Trevor Dunn (2000)
  • Ben Goldberg – Eight Phrases for Jefferson Rubin (Victo) (2004)
  • Ben Goldberg Quintet – The Door, the Hat, the Chair, the Fact (Cryptogramophone), a record of compositions dedicated to Steve Lacy (2006)
  • Plays Monk (Long Song Records, 2007) – with Scott Amendola and Devin Hoff
  • Tin Hat – The Sad Machinery of Spring (Rykodisc, 2007)
  • Ben Goldberg – Go Home (BAG Production, 2009)
  • Ben Goldberg Trio – Speech Communication (Tzadik, 2009) – with Greg Cohen and Kenny Wollesen
  • Clarinet Thing – Cry, Want (BC Records, 2009)
  • Tin Hat – Foreign Legion (BAG Production, 2010)
  • Ben Goldberg Quartet – Baal: Book of Angels Volume 15 (Tzadik, 2010) – John Zorn's Masada Book 2
  • Tin Hat – The Rain is a Handsome Animal (New Amsterdam, 2012)
  • Subatomic Particle Homesick Blues (BAG Production, 2013) – with Joshua Redman, Ron Miles, Ches Smith, Scott Amendola, and Devin Hoff
  • Unfold Ordinary Mind (BAG Production, 2013) – with Ellery Eskelin, Nels Cline, and Ches Smith
  • Worry Later (BAG Production, 2014) – Thelonious Monk compositions
  • DIALOGUE (BAG Production, 2015) – with Myra Melford
  • Orphic Machine (BAG Production, 2015)
  • Vol. 1: The Humanities (BAG Production, 2017)
  • Good Day for Cloud Fishing (Pyroclastic, 2019) – to poems by Dean Young

As sideman

With Nels Cline

With Kris Davis

With Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom

  • Otis the Polar Bear (Royal Potato Family, 2016)

With Jamie Saft

With Myra Melford

  • Myra Melford's Be Bread – The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12, 2010)

References
  1. "Ben Goldberg's Homage to Steve Lacy". NPR.org. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  2. Goldberg, Ben. "BAG productions". Archived from the original on September 4, 2011. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
  3. "Clarinetist Ben Goldberg ventures in new direction". San Francisco Chronicle. March 29, 2012.
  4. Barton, Chris (March 6, 2012). "Jazz Review: Ben Goldberg's Orphic Machine at the Blue Whale". Los Angeles Times.
  5. Allen, Warren (March 30, 2010). "Ben Goldberg; Clarinet Communion". All About Jazz.
  6. "2011 DownBeat Critics Poll". Down Beat. August 31, 2011. Archived from the original on April 14, 2012. Retrieved May 20, 2012.

Further reading
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