The Jazz Gallery: Carmen Staaf Trio

The Jazz Gallery
1158 Broadway, 5th Fl.
New York, NY 10001

Sets at 7:30pm and 9:30pm

Carmen Staaf –piano
Pablo Menares -bass
Roberto Giaquinto –drums

Pianist Carmen Staaf brings her trio to the Jazz Gallery for an evening of originals and explorations of music by Strayhorn, Monk and others. Music legend Herbie Hancock calls Carmen Staaf “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”). 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. She was a fellow at the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute, where she studied with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. 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 has been a DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Pianist for the last three years. Her 2018 co-led album “Science Fair” (with drummer Allison Miller) made both the NY Times and LA Times “Best of 2018” lists, and received 4.5 stars in DownBeat.