One of the figures of jazz piano on the U.S. scene, Aaron Goldberg, joined the calls for greater exchange between Cuba and the United States, at a time when the thaw does not seem to appear on the horizon.
The objective of such bridges would be “to learn and explore our common language together,” said the instrumentalist originally from Boston in an interview with the Prensa Latina (PL) news agency in Havana.
Goldberg is one of the stars invited to the 39th edition of the Jazz Plaza Festival, where he left a testimony of his talent with a brilliant concert this Tuesday at the Sala Avellaneda of the National Theater. There he was escorted by two luminaries of Cuban music: bassist Jorge Reyes and percussionist Oliver Valdés.
Cuba in Goldberg
Collaborator with stellar musicians such as Joshua Redman, Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Guillermo Klein, the U.S. pianist is not unknown in the island’s gray jazz scene.
“Especially in jazz, artists from both countries learned from each other. Therefore, we have to protect and expand this connection. I had a lot of fun last year, it was my second time coming to the island. The first was in 2006,” commented Goldberg.
The artist recalled that visit and his experience with Cuban trumpet player Yasek Manzano in La Zorra y el Cuervo, the cult temple of Havana jazz.
On that occasion, Goldberg discovered that, in addition to folk or classical music, jazz has a lot of strength and creativity on the island.
The presentation with Manzano was a miscellany of authors and genres. Goldberg added to his own pieces works by his compatriot Thelonious Monk, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, and songs by Pablo Milanés.
The idea of incorporating those renowned compositions allowed, in his opinion, improvisation, discovery and adventure on stage.
“Before coming to the largest of the Caribbean islands, I already knew about the mastery of Cuban jazz players like Chucho Valdés or Gonzalo Rubalcaba,” said the pianist in dialogue with PL.
In 2023 he repeated his visit. He then performed alongside Cuban-American pianist Dayramir González, who resides in New York, where his virtuosity is followed at every performance by a tribe of admirers.
The author of albums such as Turning Point (1999), Unfolding (2000), Home (2010) and At the Edge of the World (2018), among others, says he is impressed with “the quality of public music education, in conservatories such as Amadeo Roldán, the National School of Art and the University of the Arts.”
During his tours of such academies, he was so impressed that he dreams that his country “can imitate or learn from the system in terms of musical education, since here everyone plays an instrument, dances and enjoys that art.”
A crucial discovery as a teenager
Won over by jazz since high school, at age 16 he began studying with saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi.
“For me, jazz was a very big discovery and I never imagined that it would later be the protagonist of my career. I fell in love with this tradition because through improvisation I have more possibilities to express myself, present my emotions and create something new,” the musician confessed to PL.
During the 1990s, he was a member of bands led by icons such as Al Foster, Freddie Hubbard, Nicholas Payton, Stefon Harris, Tom Harrell and Gregory Tardy.
He is also a faculty member at the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and William Paterson University.
In 2019 he received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from the Helsinki University of the Arts, the highest recognition granted by that center of higher studies.
Globetrotter and polyglot
Also a graduate of Harvard University and a founding member of Carter’s Jazz Ahead during his university years, Aaron Goldberg is an inveterate traveler, which has turned him into “a citizen of the world,” who sniffs out the cultures he passes through.
“Goldberg doesn’t teach much these days (he’s on the road too often), but when he was young he benefited from helpful instructors and likes to give it back,” said Matthew Kassel in the prestigious U.S. magazine Down Beat, founded in 1934.
“It should come as no surprise to those who have followed Goldberg’s distinguished career over the past two decades that he is also fluent in several languages outside of jazz. A kind of scholar,” Kassel added.
The journalist and critic praised the quality of his latest trio album, At the Edge Of the World (Sunnyside), his first in four years. In his opinion, it represents “a kind of conceptual change for the pianist: a surprisingly contemplative investigation into the language of improvisation.”
