Carmen Staaf piano

Taking cues from two uncompromising geniuses of the piano, Carmen Staaf presents a fabulous contemporary accounting of the importance of Mary Lou Williams and Thelonious Monk in the lineage of jazz on her new recording, Sounding Line (Sunnyside, September 19 2025). For her West Coast preview tour, she is joined by some of the illustrious musicians from the album - Ben Goldberg, Dillon Vado and Hamir Atwal - for a set of duos, trios and quartets exploring music by Williams and Monk, as well as originals.

Music legend Herbie Hancock calls Carmen Staaf (www.carmenstaaf.com) "a consummate jazz pianist with equal talent in composition, orchestration and arranging." Currently pianist and Musical Director for NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater, Carmen has performed everywhere from the Village Vanguard with John Zorn, to Lincoln Center as a guest soloist with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, to recordings with Natalie Merchant (“Keep Your Courage”) and Lila Downs (“Pecados Y Milagros”). She was a fellow at the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute, where she studied with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. Later, she was tapped, with Herbie’s approval, to transcribe his performances and consult on his course for masterclass.com. As a composer, she has been commissioned by the Jazz Coalition, the Jazz Education Network, and trombonist Jennifer Wharton, and created orchestral arrangements for the American Ballet Theater. A Yamaha Artist, Carmen has played at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals, the Playboy Jazz Festival (where she performed in a two-piano setting with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter), International Jazz Days in Paris and at the White House, and throughout Europe, Latin America, Morocco, India and Japan. She was a DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Jazz Artist in 2024 and was a Rising Star Pianist in the poll in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. She and Allison Miller released their duo album "Nearness" (Sunnyside) in 2022 to wide critical acclaim, including selection as one of DownBeat’s “Best of 2022.” She is also on recordings by Jeff Williams, Dan Blake, Jenny Scheinman, and many others. Carmen has performed recent Earthwise shows with Todd Sickafoose, Jenny Scheinman and Allison Miller.

Carmen will be joined on this date with three musicians who appear on the recording: Ben Goldberg, Dillon Vado and Hamir Atwal. The musicians will perform as duos, trios and a quartet. Carmen and friends developed some of the material during a residency with Earthwise at the Art Center last fall. Her cd was recorded the following week at Oakland's 25th Street studio.

The diversity of clarinetist Ben Goldberg's (www.bengoldberg.net) musical interests may only be matched by the intensity of his study. He grew up on The Beatles and classic jazz, started playing Klezmer music at the University of California, Berkeley in the early '80s, and studied with renowned classical clarinet teacher Rosario Mazzeo. In 1984, he became the clarinetist for The Klezmorim, touring throughout the U.S. and Europe, where he also met and learned from the legendary soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy. In 1987, he started the New Klezmer Trio with drummer Kenny Wollesen and bassist Dan Seamans, a band that led the way in injecting elements of jazz and the avant-garde to the previously insulated world of Jewish traditional music. - Warren Allen, AllAboutJazz. Goldberg states: "The music of Thelonious Monk has been central to my education and development. As with the European classical masters, the study of Monk’s music has taught me a lot. The more I play these songs, the more I see that each one contains a lesson – sometimes a lesson in harmony, sometimes melody, sometimes rhythm or phrasing – that forms the living core of the piece. The trio Plays Monk released a recording in 2007, and was listed in Downbeat Magazine’s critics’ poll in the category of Rising Star Ensemble." Ben Goldberg has appeared in Earthwise of Palo Alto concerts numerous times as a leader, co-leader and sideman.

Dillon Vado is a professional drummer, vibraphonist and educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. A graduate of the California Jazz Conservatory, he has performed locally and internationally with the best musicians in the world. Dillon's skill set allows him to play drums with any type of band or style of music, and also enables him to play his own uniquely melodic arrangements of familiar and original songs when playing the vibraphone.

Hamir Atwal is a drummer and composer celebrated for his inventive improvisation and genre-crossing collaborations. A Bay Area native, he studied at Berklee College of Music with Joe Lovano and Hal Crook, shaping a sound that blends jazz, experimental, and pop influences. He has toured and recorded with artists such as Tune-Yards, Ben Goldberg, and Myra Melford, and is a member of the trio Invisible Guy. An active educator, Atwal has led clinics at CalArts, Peabody Conservatory, and Stanford Jazz Workshop.

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