w/ Brandon Goldberg, piano, Ben Wolfe, bass, Jimmy Macbride, drums & Special Guest DON BRADEN
Friday, July 28
Brandon Goldberg, now 17 years old, has been playing piano since he was three years old. His professional career began in earnest more than five years ago and he is now a seasoned performer, composer, arranger and recording artist with two albums as a leader. With “ample dexterity and a wise-beyond-his-years sound” (JAZZIZ), Goldberg found his passion for jazz listening to his favorite artists –Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra and John Coltrane as a small child.
Goldberg has performed at the Newport, Litchfield, Twin Cities, and Caramoor Jazz Festivals, the Monterey Jazz Festival with the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, and the Bravo Niagara Festival of the Arts. He has played in top jazz venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Dizzy’s Club, Birdland Theatre, The Blue Note, Mezzrow, The Apollo Theater, The Side Door, Keystone Korner, The Adrienne Arsht Center, FAENA Theater in Miami, and Carnegie Hall with the NYO Jazz Orchestra. He has also played in classical piano festivals, including the Miami International Piano Festival.
Both his album releases have earned 4-star reviews from Downbeat. His debut album, LET’S PLAY!, released in 2019, features Ben Wolfe on bass, Donald Edwards on drums and Marcus Strickland on tenor saxophone. His second album, In Good Time, released in 2021 features the late, great drummer Ralph Peterson, Jr., Stacy Dillard on saxophones, Josh Evans on trumpet and Luques Curtis on bass. (Brandon, Josh and Luques were all Litchfield Jazz Campers.) Downbeat named In Good Time one of the top albums of 2021.
In 2018 and 2019, The Miami Symphony Orchestra commissioned Goldberg to write two compositions for piano and orchestra. Surroundings and Rhapsody in F were both performed live and recorded by MISO with Brandon at the keyboard.
Brandon Goldberg is the youngest recipient of the ASCAP 2022 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award and a four-time Downbeat Student Music Awards winner. He works closely with the Jazz Foundation of America (JFA) and has performed at their annual Gala, A Great Night in Harlem at the Apollo Theater where in 2016 he presented McCoy Tyner a Lifetime Achievement Award.
This is Brandon’s second time on the Litchfield mainstage. He appeared as a special guest in Jen Allen’s 2017 tribute, The Music of Carly Simon & Carol King. Playing with him today are Ben Wolfe on bass, Jimmy Macbride on drums, and Special Guest Don Braden on saxophones and flute. Braden has served as Music Director of Litchfield Jazz Camp for the past 26 years. Brandon and Jimmy were both Litchfield Jazz Campers. A special age exception was made for each because they were both clearly prodigies: Jimmy was 9 and Brandon 10 when they began here, separated by nearly a generation.
Welcome home Brandon!