Ben Goldberg

Profile

Clarinetist and composer Ben Goldberg grew up in Denver, Colorado. He was a pupil of the eminent clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo and studied improvisation with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano. Since 1992, when his group New Klezmer Trio “kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music” (SF Chronicle), Ben has shaped a career through curiosity and experimentation across many genres and styles.

The New York Times has noted that Ben’s music “conveys a feeling of joyous research into the basics of polyphony and collective improvising, the constant usefulness of musicians intuitively coming together and pulling apart.” 

Ben has twice been named Rising Star Clarinetist by Downbeat Magazine, and consistently places in the top two clarinetists in the Downbeat Critics’ Poll. He has received grants from the NEA and Chamber Music America, and been a resident at Civitella Ranieri in Italy. 

During the Covid-19 Quarantine, Ben created PLAGUE DIARY, with the goal of writing and recording a new piece every day. The tracks are collected in a Bandcamp album, where they are offered free of charge to listeners. At its completion PLAGUE DIARY contained over 200 tracks. 

Ben has released over thirty records of his own compositions. The Wall Street Journal called Good Day for Cloud Fishing (2019), his album featuring poems by Dean Young, “a stellar document of small-group jazz,” and All About Jazz, reviewing Everything Happens To Be (2021), said “The music of Ben Goldberg seems to come from a place outside of time – or maybe it comes from several times simultaneously.” 

Ben has played his music throughout the US and internationally, including several week-long residencies at The Stone in New York, performances at The Jazz Gallery, The Jazz Standard, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Saalfelden Jazz Festival, The London Jazz Festival, and many European tours. 

In addition to the Glamorous Escapades and The Euphemystical Vibraphonium, Ben’s groups include: Invisible Guy; Tin Hat; Orphic Machine; Unfold Ordinary Mind; The Cool Philosophy of Ben Goldberg; DIALOGUE; Ben Goldberg School; and Ben Goldberg’s Brainchild, an eleven piece ensemble performing Ben’s on-the-spot compositions. He also plays in Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom. 

Ben is on the Music faculty at the University of California, Berkeley and he runs BAG Production Records.