Mike LeDonne’s Groover Quartet

October 11, 2025 By Craig OConnell

Mike LeDonne’s Groover Quartet

By The Side Door Jazz Club, 85 Lyme St Old Lyme, CT 06371

Join us for a special night of jazz with Organist Mike Ledonne and his Quartet!

Eric Alexander – Saxophone

Mike Leonne – Organ

Dave Stryker – Guitar

Jason Teimann – Drums

Pianist/Organist Mike LeDonne started playing piano at the age of 5 and was raised in his parent’s music store. By the age of 10 his father, a jazz guitarist, began booking him on gigs. He is now an internationally renowned pianist and organist with the unique experience of having played with a wide spectrum of jazz masters from Benny Goodman to Milt Jackson and Sonny Rollins. He has won praise not only from critics but from master musicians: Oscar Peterson picked him as one of his favorite pianists of today.

At age 21, Mike graduated from New England Conservatory in 1979 and moved to New York City with the Widespread Jazz Orchestra. In 1981, he left Widespread to travel to the UK with Panama Francis and the Savoy Sultans. On returning, he began a two-year stint as the house pianist at Jimmy Ryan’s, then one of New York’ s oldest jazz clubs. It was there that he came under the influence of and played with many old masters such as Roy Eldridge, Papa Jo Jones and Vic Dickenson. He spent 1982-1983 with the Benny Goodman sextet and went on to play with Buddy Tate, Al Grey, Ruby Braff and many others. Later he worked 1 year with the Art Farmer-Clifford Jordan Quintet, went to Paris with Grady Tate, and played with more modern masters like James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, Charles McPherson, Sonny Rollins and Bobby Hutcherson. He also spent time as accompanist to singers Ernestine Anderson, Annie Ross and Etta Jones.

In 1988 he started playing with the Milt Jackson Quartet (along with Mickey Roker and Bob Cranshaw). Mr. Jackson recorded Mike’s compositions and arrangements. Mike also became the band’s musical director. In the fall of 1992, Mike was chosen to be part of a group of top young musicians for the Phillip Morris Superband World Tour. Mike served as musical director for that group, which featured Ryan Kisor on trumpet, Joshua Redman on tenor saxophone, Jesse Davis on alto saxophone, Christian McBride on bass and Lewis Nash at the drums. Around this time, Mike toured with the Newport All-Stars in lineups that featured Harry “Sweets” Edison and Clark Terry. Mike has been playing and recording with Benny Golson since 1997. He has also been leading trios that have included greats like Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, Billy Hart, Pete LaRoca and Louis Hayes.

Mike is on over 100 CD’s as a sideman and starting in 1988 recorded his first of 16 CD’s as a leader. Five on Criss Cross Jazz, three on Double Time Records, seven on Savant and one on Cellar Live. Many of hem award winning and include the greatest musicians around today including Tom Harrell, Gary Smulyan, Dennis Irwin, Kenny Washington, Steve Nelson, Ryan Kisor, Jim Rotondi, Joshua Redman, Lewis Nash, Peter Washington, Peter Bernstein, Eric Alexander, Jeremy Pelt, Joe Farnsworth, John Webber, Bob Cranshaw, Mickey Roker and Ron Carter.

In 2003 Mike recorded his first CD as a leader on the Hammond Organ, an instrument he’s been playing since he was 10. It documented the music of his organ band The Groover Quartet with Eric Alexander, Peter Bernstein and Joe Farnsworth. The CD went to #1 and together they’ve held down a now legendary gig on Tuesday nights at Smoke in NYC. He has since released 3 more CD’s of this band, on the Savant label, which he calls The Groover Quartet. They’ve toured in Europe and Japan as well as the States. Mike also caught the ears of George Coleman, Lou Donaldson and David Fathead Newman who all hired him to play organ in their bands. The Jazz Journalists Association nominated Mike for Best Keyboards 2012 for his “Keep The Faith” CD. Also in 2012, Mike won the Downbeat Rising Star Award for Organ.

Mike is the co-author of Jim Snidero’s Jazz Conception for Piano and Piano Comping books, on Advance Music. In Sept. In 2002 he joined the faculty at the Juilliard School of Music and spent 4 years there. He is also one of the founders of the Jazz For Teens program at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, N.J.

Mike LeDonne’s Groover Quartet

October 10, 2025 By Craig OConnell

Mike LeDonne’s Groover Quartet

By The Side Door Jazz Club

Join us for a special night of jazz with Organist Mike Ledonne and his Quartet!

The Side Door, 85 Lyme St Old Lyme, CT 06371

Eric Alexander – Saxophone

Mike LeDonne – Organ

Dave Stryker – Guitar

Jason Teimann – Drums

Simon Moullier Trio

October 3, 2025 By Craig OConnell

The Side Door, 85 Lyme St Old Lyme, CT 06371

2 hours 30 minutes

Doors at 7:15 PM

Simon Moullier – Vibraphone

Giuseppe Cucchiara– Bass

Alon Benjamini– Drums

“Best vibes player I’ve heard…” – Quincy Jones

“His music is fresh, it speaks to everyone. Never heard anyone play vibes like that before.” – Herbie Hancock

“Simon Moullier is the unchallenged new star of jazz vibraphone.” – Brian Morton, DownBeat

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Award-winning vibraphonist, composer, arranger and producer, Simon Moullier has distinguished himself as one of the leading voices of his generation.

After being mentored by Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Jimmy Heath at the Thelonious Monk Institute, and Darren Barrett at Berklee College of Music – he has since worked with Gerald Clayton, Ben Wendel, the SF Jazz Collective, Terri-Lyne Carrington, and is featured on recordings with Mark Turner, Kendrick Scott, Miguel Zenon..

As a bandleader Simon has released five albums, one of which was nominated in the “Best New Jazz Artist” category at the Jazz Music Award in 2022.

In 2023, he was recognized for his participation as an arranger on Terri-Lyne Carrington’s GRAMMY-Award winning “New Standards Vol 1”, followed by another GRAMMY-Award recognition for his participation in Laufey’s “Bewitched”.

Simon was voted ‘Rising Star Vibraphone Player of the Year’ in Downbeat’s 71st Annual Critics Poll, ‘25 For the Future’ in DownBeat’s 90th Anniversary Edition, and ‘Up-and-Comer of the Year’ by The New York City Jazz Records.

His most recent album ‘Elements of Light’ was released on Sep 20, 2024 on Candid Records.

Simon is an active touring musician, having performed worldwide at many of the most-respected jazz clubs and festivals, including the Village Vanguard, Blue Note Tokyo & Beijing, Jazz en Tete, and Festival Radio France Montpellier in France, Chiapas Marimba Festival in Mexico, The International Jazz Day Festival in Havana, Cuba & St. Petersburg, Russia.

As an educator, he has given many masterclasses over the world and has taught in schools such as Berklee College of Music & the Hague Royal conservatory.

Caelan Cardello Trio Album Release Celebration

September 12, 2025 By Craig OConnell

Caelan Cardello Trio Album Release Celebration

The Side Door, 85 Lyme St Old Lyme, CT 06371

Caelan Cardello – Piano

Jonathon Muir Cotton – Bass

Domo Branch – Drums

Born and raised in Teaneck, NJ, Caelan Cardello has been playing piano since the age of 5. He grew up studying jazz and classical separately, and was performing professionally by the age of 16. He attended Jazz House Kids for 7 years, and was given opportunities to learn from the greatest jazz mentors and play on stages like Dizzy’s Club, The Jazz Standard, and the Newport Jazz Festival.

Caelan has performed with Christian McBride, Joe Farnsworth, Jimmy Cobb, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Bill Charlap, and Rufus Reid, to name a few. He was selected as one of 5 finalists in the prestigious 2023 American Pianists Association Jazz competition.

Caelan graduated from William Paterson University with a bachelor’s in Jazz Performance in 2022 and just graduated this year with his master’s degree from the Juilliard School. He regularly plays in NYC leading his own bands or as a sideman, and tours around the country frequently.

Peter Bernstein Quartet

September 6, 2025 By Craig OConnell

Peter Bernstein Quartet

Saturday, September 6th, September 6 · 8 – 10:30pm, Peter Bernstein Quartet at The Side Door Jazz Club

The Side Door, 85 Lyme St Old Lyme, CT 06371

Peter Bernstein – Guitar

Sullivan Fortner – Piano

Vicente Archer – Bass

Billy Drummond – Drums

Peter Bernstein was born in New York City in 1967. He has been playing and recording since 1990 when he first appeared on recordings with Lou Donaldson and the organ trio of Larry Goldings and Bill Stewart, a group still touring and recording today. Peter played in Lou Donaldson’s group for 10 years as well as performing and recording with Joshua Redman’s group 1995-97. Other associations and collaborations include Jimmy Cobb, Dr. Lonnie Smith, David Fathead Newman, Brad Mehldau, Etta Jones, Melvin Rhyne, Diana Krall, Bobby Hutcherson, Lee Konitz, Nicholas Payton, George Coleman, and Sonny Rollins. Peter has played on festival, concert, and club stages all over the world since the early 90’s. He has appeared on over 300 recordings with these musicians and many of his contemporaries as well as 14 records under his own name. These recordings have featured many of his own compositions and musicians such as Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, Greg Hutchinson, Jimmy Cobb, Bill Stewart, Larry Grenadier, Gerald Clayton, Sullivan Fortner, Peter Washington, Doug Weiss, and Joe Farnsworth among others. His latest recording on the Smoke Sessions label is “Better Angels”, and features Brad Mehldau, Vicente Archer, and Al Foster.

Yoko Miwa Trio

August 30, 2025 By Craig OConnell

Yoko Miwa Trio

The Side Door Jazz Club

815 followers

Lots of repeat customers 📈

The Side Door

85 Lyme St Old Lyme, CT 06371

Internationally acclaimed pianist/composer Yoko Miwa is one of the most powerful and compelling performers on the scene today. Her trio, with its remarkable telepathy and infectious energy, has brought audiences to their feet worldwide. Yoko was named a Rising Star Pianist in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 DownBeat Critics Poll. The Yoko Miwa Trio’s 2021 release Songs of Joy received wide acclaim and reached #1 on national jazz radio charts and was voted a best jazz album of 2021 in the DownBeat 86th Annual Readers Poll. Jazziz called it “a radiant new collection.” CD Hotlist said “…yet another triumph from one of America’s finest jazz pianists, composers, and bandleaders.” Their 2019 CD, Keep Talkin’, showcases Miwa’s fine playing and artful compositions and the trio’s uncanny musical camaraderie. DownBeat gave the recording four stars, calling it “a beautifully constructed album” and noting “the drive and lyricism of a pianist and composer at home in bebop, gospel, pop, and classical.” JazzTimes also reviewed the album favorably, praising Miwa’s “jaw-dropping degree of technique.” The album enjoyed seven weeks in the top 10 on Jazz Week’s charts, much like its predecessor, Miwa’s 2017 release Pathways, which also made Jazz Week’s top 10 for several weeks. In a 2017 feature article on Miwa, DownBeat noted her “impressive technique and a tuneful lyricism that combines an Oscar Peterson-ish hard swing with Bill Evans-like introspection.”

For more than a decade Miwa’s trio has played regularly at major jazz clubs in their home city of Boston, as well as venues around the world. A favorite of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Miwa was chosen to play on “Marian McPartland & Friends,” part of the Coca-Cola Generations in Jazz Festival. She was also chosen to perform at Lincoln Center’s annual Jazz and Leadership Workshop for The National Urban League’s Youth Summit. Miwa also appears regularly at New York’s famed Blue Note Jazz Club as well as Birdland and has performed and/or recorded with a wide range of jazz greats including Sheila Jordan, Slide Hampton, Arturo Sandoval, George Garzone, Jazzmeia Horn, Jon Faddis, Jerry Bergonzi, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington, Peter Washington, Kevin Mahogany, John Lockwood, Dominique Eade, Calvin Keys, and Johnathan Blake among others. In 2018 she performed on the main stage at the Atlanta Jazz Festival and the Litchfield Jazz Festival, where her trio drew the largest audience of any act. She is a Yamaha Pianos Artist, JVC Victor Entertainment and Ubuntu Music recording artist, 10X nominated and 2019 Winner in the Boston Music Awards as Jazz Artist of the Year, and Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll winner.

Miwa’s story of becoming a jazz musician is full of serendipity and happy twists of fate. In the late 1990s the classically-trained artist auditioned for Berklee College of Music on a lark and ended up winning a full scholarship. She arrived at the school from her homeland of Japan in 1997, intending to stay for a year. In 2022, she’s still in Boston, enriching the city’s musical life and serving as one of the most popular professors in the Berklee piano department.

Act Naturally, the Yoko Miwa Trio’s major label debut in Japan, came out in 2012 on the JVC Victor Entertainment label and the band toured Japan that same year. “She is one of the best jazz pianists in Japan,” said Yozo Iwanami, Jazz Hihyo Magazine.

A native of Kobe, Japan, Miwa didn’t pursue an interest in jazz until she met and studied with Minoru Ozone, a popular television organist and nightclub owner who is the father of pianist Makoto Ozone. Miwa worked at Ozone’s club and as an accompanist and piano instructor at his music school until the great Kobe earthquake of 1995 destroyed both facilities. Then, while continuing to take private lessons from Minoru Ozone, she also pursued musical studies at the Koyo Conservatory in Kobe. From there she won first prize in a scholarship competition to attend Berklee. Miwa quickly began playing with a host of talented students and teachers, and she formed a strong bond with vocal great Kevin Mahogany, who chose the pianist to serve as accompanist in his classes and on his gigs.

Miwa has released nine highly acclaimed CDs: In the Mist of Time (Tokuma, 2000); Fadeless Flower (Polystar, 2002); Canopy of Stars (Polystar, 2004); The Day We Said Goodbye, recorded live at the studios of WGBH-FM (Sunshine Digital, 2006); Live at Scullers (Jazz Cat Amnesty, 2011); Act Naturally (JVC Victor Entertainment, 2012), Pathways (2017), Keep Talkin’ (2019), and Songs of Joy (Ubuntu Music, 2021).

Paul Cornish Trio

August 29, 2025 By Craig OConnell

Paul Cornish Trio

Join us for a special night of jazz with pianist Paul Cornish and his Trio!

By The Side Door Jazz Club

The Side Door, 85 Lyme St Old Lyme, CT 06371

Every artist who records for Blue Note is part of a grand legacy, now in its 86th year. But pianist Paul Cornish is a torchbearer for several remarkable Blue Note legacies, all at once. Which makes You’re Exaggerating!, his powerfully lyrical trio debut for the label, a mission statement for Blue Note’s next generation.

To begin, Cornish is part of a great heritage of jazz piano that has unfolded at the label, from Blue Note’s first 78-rpm releases by Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons through Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, Don Pullen, Geri Allen, Jacky Terrasson, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Renee Rosnes, Aaron Parks, Gerald Clayton and beyond.

Then, he’s part of a lineage of Blue Note artists, past and present, who hail from Houston, Texas, and developed at the city’s Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, a.k.a. HSPVA. That more recent hall of fame includes Jason Moran, Robert Glasper, Walter Smith III, Kendrick Scott, Chris Dave and James Francies. Of course, within that list there’s yet another bloodline, of musicians who’ve come to define jazz pianism in the 21st century: Moran, Glasper, Francies and, now, Cornish, who was born and raised in Houston and has been based in Los Angeles for over a decade.

In many ways, Cornish is the most profound embodiment yet of Blue Note’s regenerative influence — the idea that, like the label’s landmark midcentury recordings, Blue Note LPs of recent vintage have had a seismic impact on jazz’s ever-evolving sound. “Those early Robert Glasper records on Blue Note, like Canvas and In My Element, were my first window into this legacy I’m part of,” says Cornish, whose profile has elevated of late through his work with fellow Blue Note artist Joshua Redman. “I look at Jason Moran as the catalyst. And Glasper took some of that and added a whole other thing to it, and then James took it even further. With each one of us, it evolves and expands.”

Cornish shares with those players a rare duality, having cultivated a unique identity while also evoking radiant bits and pieces of jazz’s past. You’re Exaggerating! features Cornish with the rhythm tandem of bassist Joshua Crumbly and drummer Jonathan Pinson, performing nine original compositions, most of them inspired by personal memories, reflections and idols.

“Quienxiety” is an expression of how Cornish’s calm exterior obscures inner-turmoil. “I’m a chronic overthinker,” he reveals. “I’m a people-pleaser.” “5AM,” with its open-ended, dreamlike arpeggios, meditates on the varying implications a twilit hour can have for a young man at different points in his life. “There have been times where I was up at 5 a.m. to work out or shed and be an ambitious college student,” he says. “And there were other times where I was up at 5 a.m. on a different vibe.” Cornish pays tribute to one of his most important influences, the late, great Geri Allen, with the kinetic “Queen Geri,” which was inspired by the revered pianist’s piece “Drummer’s Song.”

“She would bring a more avant-garde and adventurous spirit to more traditional settings, and vice versa,” Cornish says. His homage is also an investigation of gender issues within jazz. “I do think that some of the most brilliant yet unfortunately overlooked minds in this music have been women,” he says.

Other album highlights tend toward a catalyst that is more purely musical. A recorded rhythm from drum titan Ben Riley provided the launch pad for “Palindrome,” featuring a guest appearance by guitarist Jeff Parker, whose impeccable taste complements the tune’s inquisitive contours, which are Monkian yet sleeker. “Modus Operandi” finds its spark in Moran’s Bandwagon and Baroque counterpoint. The edgy “DB Song” is named for drum and bass, though its more apparent muse is the visual experimentation of artist David Hammons.

In fact, Cornish explains, the entirety of You’re Exaggerating! is a kind of exercise in additive abstraction — a mystery in which the feeling of beguilement, rather than the resolution, is the point. Helmed by a generous, uplifting bandleader, the trio chops up and reinvents the groove at will, and embarks on unforeseen detours. Cornish’s approach, in its even-keeled texture and shrewd harmony, is a sort of mastery that entices rather than merely impresses. Under the sonic direction of L.A. musician-producer Henry Solomon, the trio was recorded in a way to allow for Cornish’s dynamics and touch to shine through. “Me and Henry talked about the frustrations we feel with how a lot of jazz records sound,” says Cornish, adding that “he understands the nuances and complexities that are in my music, and in me as a person.”

Who Paul Cornish is as a person has everything to do with Houston — a place where progressiveness and tradition exist in equilibrium, producing a culture and institutions that foster generation-defining talent. He showed interest in the drums as a toddler and studied percussion during grade school. Classical piano lessons began at age 5, and Cornish discovered jazz performance in his middle-school jazz band. His passion deepened at Houston’s longrunning Summer Jazz Workshop, where he met Francies, a couple of years Cornish’s senior.

In Houston fashion, the church also played a pivotal role in his evolution. By middle school he was a paid working musician, leading programs of genre-blurring contemporary gospel at a youth church. He graduated to adult congregations, and to a three-service, full-day grind that taught him invaluable lessons in commitment and purpose he’d use later as a touring musician. “I still play in church to this day,” Cornish says, “and it instills this idea that you’re in service to something that’s larger than yourself. You’re a vessel for a message.”

“Continuing the legendary lineage of Houston pianists while still carving out your own lane is not an easy feat,” says Glasper. “Paul is doing just that, giving us a few pages from his personal story. Understanding the history but not being held back by the history is the ongoing struggle of the modern jazz musician. But there is no history without the now.”

Cornish relocated to the West Coast to attend the USC Thornton School of Music, and was chosen for the elite fellowship at UCLA’s Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. There, he developed a personal and creative relationship with Hancock and artist-in-residence Wayne Shorter — two of his lodestars, and epochal figures in Blue Note history. From Hancock, Cornish learned the necessity of being a good person — the icon’s favorite dictum that music is what you do, not who you are. At the institute, he absorbed the realization that he was going to have to make his own way. “It was really an education in who are you gonna be?” Cornish says.

He’s spent his years in L.A. sketching out an answer, with thrilling results. He’s collaborated with pop visionaries including Kanye West, Louis Cole, HAIM and Snoh Aalegra, and made his way into one of the finest working groups in all of jazz. On Words Fall Short, the most recent Blue Note album from saxophonist Joshua Redman, Cornish matches the leader’s mix of poise and emotional openness with his own contemplative language. Cornish has strived to internalize Redman’s “devotion to excellence,” he says. “He might be the most consistent person I’ve ever met in my life, in how he takes care of himself and the music.”

All of these experiences and mentors track throughout You’re Exaggerating!, a thoroughly compelling listen that ranks among Blue Note’s most auspicious debuts. Not that Paul Cornish, whose conversation is defined by its humility, would make such pronouncements himself. “Watching those players before me in Houston, it just gave me motivation to keep working hard,” he says. “I’m really just grateful to be a part of this story.”

Sarah Hanahan Quartet

August 23, 2025 By Craig OConnell

Sarah Hanahan Quartet

By The Side Door Jazz Club

The Side Door, 85 Lyme St Old Lyme, CT 06371

Sarah Hanahan is an emerging jazz saxophonist based in New York City and a leading voice in the world of alto saxophone. A graduate of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the Hartt School of Music (B.A., 2019) and The Juilliard School (M.M., 2022), Sarah has studied with jazz greats like Abraham Burton, Nat Reeves, Steve Davis, Billy Drummond, and Marc Cary. Her distinctive style blends tradition with innovation, earning recognition for her dynamic performances and compelling musical voice.

Sarah has performed with renowned musicians such as Jeff “Tain” Watts, Nat Reeves, Peter Martin, Steve Davis, Billy Hart, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jason Moran, Marc Cary, Joseph Farnsworth, Peter Washington, and Nicholas Payton. She regularly leads her own group at iconic New York venues including Smalls Jazz Club, Dizzy’s Club, Smoke Jazz Club, Birdland, and Zinc Bar.

In addition to performing in NYC, Sarah has toured nationally and internationally with her band SH4, as well as with Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y, Sherrie Miracle and the Diva Orchestra, Joe Farnsworth, and the Grammy-award winning Mingus Big Band.

Her debut album, Among Giants, is out now, receiving a 5-star review in Downbeat Magazine and included in their list of Best Albums of the Year for 2024. Featuring a powerhouse rhythm section of Marc Cary, Nat Reeves, and Jeff “Tain” Watts, the album highlights Sarah’s bold and expressive sound.

Sarah’s music bridges the gap between tradition and innovation, blending the timeless elements of jazz with fresh, contemporary ideas. With her unique sound and thoughtful approach, she is shaping the future of jazz, inspiring listeners to embrace both the roots and evolution of the genre.

Aaron Goldberg Trio with John Patitucci and Obed Calvaire

August 16, 2025 By Craig OConnell

Aaron Goldberg Trio with John Patitucci and Obed Calvaire

By The Side Door Jazz Club

The Side Door, 85 Lyme St Old Lyme, CT 06371

Aaron Goldberg – Piano

John Patitucci – Bass

Obed Calvaire – Drums

“For over 20 years, pianist Aaron Goldberg has set himself apart as one of the most scintillating performers in jazz,” hails JazzTimes. Goldberg is widely heralded as one of the art form’s most compelling pianists, both leading his own trio and collaborating with such brilliant icons as Joshua Redman, Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Guillermo Klein and many more. Simultaneously swinging and embracing risk, his stylistically fluid, singular voice reveals that jazz is a tradition of innovation.

Goldberg became a jazz devotee in high school as a student at Milton Academy in Boston. He was introduced to the African-American art form by bassist and master educator Bob Sinicrope, and at age 16 began study with saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. As Aaron puts it, “At first improvisation was a mystery and a puzzle, but soon it became a profound inner and outer journey as life and music entwined.” After receiving awards from Berklee College of Music and Downbeat Magazine, he moved to New York City at 17 to attend The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Devoting himself entirely to music for the first time, he won the NFAA Recognition and Talent Search and IAJE Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Fellowship, attending classes by day and performing in NYC clubs by night, inspired by NYC’s myriad living masters.

After spending a year at The New School, Aaron enrolled at Harvard College and began a cross-disciplinary program in philosophy, psychology and the history of science. He graduated magna cum laude in 1996 with a concentration in Mind, Brain and Behavior. While at Harvard he juggled academics with an equally intense musical docket. At age 18 he was discovered by the inimitable vocalist Betty Carter and became a founding member of Carter’s famed Jazz Ahead throughout his college years. He performed locally with Boston legends Jerry Bergonzi, Alan Dawson, and Bill Pierce, played every weekend at Wally’s Café and spent summers in NYC on the bandstand with up-and-coming talents such as Mark Turner and Omer Avital.

Aaron promptly moved back to New York after college, continuing his ascent in bands led by a cross-generational array of icons including Al Foster, Freddie Hubbard, Nicholas Payton, Stefon Harris, Tom Harrell, and Gregory Tardy among others. In late 1997 he formed his first trio with bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland, a widely acclaimed empathic unit that would perform and record consistently for the next two decades and leave their mark upon a generation of musicians.

Beginning in early 1998 Aaron began to garner worldwide attention touring and recording with the Joshua Redman Quartet, marking the beginning of a longstanding artistic collaboration and friendship that endures today. In 2004 he began a four-year tenure with guitar guru Kurt Rosenwinkel, and in 2005 toured extensively with Wynton Marsalis’s quintet as well as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Despite this demanding schedule Aaron earned an M.A. in Philosophy at Tufts University in 2010 under Daniel Dennett, commuting for class and writing papers while on the road. Over the past decade he has toured extensively with his own Trio as well as the Joshua Redman Quartet, carving time for collaborations with some of his other favorite artists including Cecile McLorin Salvant, Ron Carter, Joe Lovano, Peter Bernstein, Camila Meza, Ravi Coltrane, Carl Allen, Madeleine Peyroux, John Ellis and Eli Degibri.

Aaron’s most recent recordings as a bandleader include At the Edge of the World (2018, Sunnyside Records) which features bassist Matt Penman and master drummer/body percussionist Leon Parker. Jazziz notes that the album “rekindles a musical relationship that in the past has provided many sparks and no shortage of fireworks.” The Now (2015) foregrounds his original trio comprising two of the finest musicians of his generation, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland. These follow upon Home (2010) and Worlds (2006), also on Sunnyside, which both capture the sensitivity and dynamism of this tight-knit trio along with special guests. The three recently returned to the studio for an upcoming trio release in 2023. Given that Goldberg’s debut recording, Turning Point, first appeared on the J Curve label in 1999, followed by Unfolding on the same imprint in 2002, the upcoming album will mark 25 years of musical fellowship.

Aaron’s contemporaneous collaborative project Yes! Trio is a trilateral celebration co-led by Omer Avital and Ali Jackson Jr. Groove du Jour (2019) marks their long-awaited release on the Jazz & People label, after their eponymous debut on Sunnyside in 2012. “This sensational meeting of players is a near-perfect mixture of ingredients, bristling with braggadocious energy” says DOWNBEAT. Goldberg’s other critically acclaimed collaborations include a unique co-led album with Argentinian master composer Guillermo Klein entitled Bienestan (2011), as well as an upcoming duet project with Palestinian qanunist and vocalist Ali Paris, exploring the intersections of Arabic traditions and jazz as well as art and politics. As a co-leader Goldberg recorded 4 albums with the OAM Trio, appears upon over 100 more as a sideman, and co-wrote with John Ellis a series of educational cd’s for children entitled Baby Loves Jazz.

As a citizen Aaron maintains an active interest in education and political engagement, including in the role of music in society as a whole. In 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 he produced and performed in Jazz for America’s Future, Jazz for Obama, Jazz for Obama 2012, Jazz For America’s Future 2016 and Jazz for America, historic fundraising concerts for the presidential campaigns of John Kerry, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden. Aaron is a member of the faculty at both the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and William Paterson University, and frequently travels as a clinician to conservatories and workshops across the world. In 2019, Goldberg received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from University of the Arts Helsinki– the highest acknowledgement that the university can confer.

Throughout his career Aaron Goldberg has surrounded himself with kindred spirits in pursuit of the highest expression. He and his bandmates embody the best of what jazz can be today: the ability to speak together in a progressive voice, marking both present and future with their creative stamp. Aaron’s joy in communal improvisation continues to inspire audiences around the planet, empowering the human spirit to embrace each moment.

Billy Drummond and Freedom of Ideas

August 9, 2025 By Craig OConnell

Billy Drummond and Freedom of Ideas

By The Side Door Jazz Club

The Side Door, 85 Lyme St , Old Lyme, CT 06371

Billy Drummond – Drums

Steve Wilson – Saxophones

Adam Birnbaum – Piano

Dezron Douglas – Bass

Billy Drummond: A Jazz Drumming Legend

Acclaimed by Downbeat as “one of the hippest bandleaders now at work,” Billy Drummond’s thrilling, powerful, and highly musical playing has also made him one of the most called-for sidemen of his generation. Mentored in the bands of jazz legends Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, J.J. Johnson, and Sonny Rollins, Drummond is now widely acknowledged as one of today’s most versatile drummers, making sideman appearances with a veritable who’s who of jazz greats on over 350 albums.

“The sound of a musician fully engaged, hearing and reacting to everything happening around him.”— Kevin Whitehead, NPR Fresh Air

He has made four albums as a leader—including Dubai, a New York Times Number 1 Jazz Album of the Year—and his 2022 release, Valse Sinistre (Cellar Live), which was named, among other accolades, Number 3 on the Top 40 Albums of 2022 by JazzTimes, and was a Downbeat Best Album of 2022. His five albums as a co-leader include We’ll Be Together Again with Javon Jackson and legendary bassist Ron Carter, which made several Top Ten lists of the Year. Modern Drummer magazine recently honored Dubai as one of the 50 Crucial Jazz Drumming Recordings of the Past 100 Years—“distilling to only 50, a century’s worth of drumming on jazz recordings, which by any reasonable guess would comprise tens if not hundreds of thousands of titles.”

“I consider myself very fortunate to have come up playing with some of the innovators of jazz who, in many instances, helped shape the way this music is and will always be played,” says Drummond. “Priceless experience for a young person learning how to be a musician. They taught me how to be a professional – to know the material, to be on time and, most of all, to play from your heart.”

Born in Newport News, Virginia, where he grew up listening to his father’s extensive jazz record collection, Drummond was leading his own bands from the age of eight and teaching adults from the age of just 14, before going on to study classical percussion at the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music. In the late 1980s, he was encouraged by Al Foster to move to New York, where he was almost immediately recruited to the young band Out of the Blue (OTB), recording Spiral Staircase for Blue Note Records. When OTB disbanded, Billy joined Horace Silver’s Sextet, simultaneously starting lifelong associations with Buster Williams and Bobby Hutcherson, and subsequently joining J.J. Johnson’s band, followed by a three-year stint touring with Sonny Rollins.

Since then, Drummond has performed and recorded with many of the world’s jazz greats, including Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Buster Williams, Steve Kuhn, J.J. Johnson, Sonny Rollins, Charles Tolliver, Nat Adderley, Charles McPherson, Eddie Henderson, James Moody, Sheila Jordan, Andrew Hill, Ron Carter, Carla Bley, Eddie Gomez, Larry Willis, Hank Jones, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Konitz, Stanley Cowell, Archie Shepp, Joe Lovano, Javon Jackson, Chris Potter, Eric Reed, Ralph Moore, Vincent Herring, Franco Ambrosetti (Italy), Karin Krog (Norway), Sadao Watanabe (Japan), Toots Thielemans (Belgium), Barney Wilen (France), Laurent DeWilde (France), Jan Lundgren (Sweden), and Michel LeGrand (France).

In addition, Drummond is a highly respected educator who has taught some of the current generation’s best young drummers while juggling a busy touring schedule with his duties as Professor of Jazz Drums at the Juilliard School of Music and NYU. He also gives private lessons and master classes—via Zoom and in-person—all over the world.

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Mike LeDonne’s Groover Quartet

Mike LeDonne’s Groover Quartet

Mike LeDonne’s Groover Quartet

Mike LeDonne’s Groover Quartet

Simon Moullier Trio

Caelan Cardello Trio Album Release Celebration

Caelan Cardello Trio Album Release Celebration

Peter Bernstein Quartet

Yoko Miwa Trio

Yoko Miwa Trio

Paul Cornish Trio

Paul Cornish Trio

Sarah Hanahan Quartet

Sarah Hanahan Quartet

Aaron Goldberg Trio with John Patitucci and Obed Calvaire

Aaron Goldberg Trio with John Patitucci and Obed Calvaire

Billy Drummond and Freedom of Ideas

Billy Drummond and Freedom of Ideas

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