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Carmen Staaf

'Winner of the festival's piano competition last year, Staaf could have earned a small slot on the program on the strength of her technique alone. What stood out, though, were her compositions, particularly the fanciful "Merry Go Round," and her trio's fresh interpretation of Denzil Best's "45 Degree Angle," a Williams favorite.' - David Malitz, The Washington Post (review of the 2010 Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival opening night concert at the Kennedy Center).

'Next to take the stage was Carmen Staaf, winner of the 2009 Mary Lou Williams Pianist Competition. Performing with a trio, Staaf presented a mix of original compositions and pieces somehow related to Williams. For each, Staaf provided a detailed explanation of its origins, adding a heartfelt explanation of her respect for William's music and generosity of spirit. Equally sincere in her playing, Staaf delivered clearly articulated ideas, particularly on her own well-structured original compositions. Of particular note was her solo piece "Rory."' - Frank A. Matzner, All About Jazz, June 24, 2010 (Mary Lou Williams Festival review).

Please visit the new www.carmenstaaf.com for upcoming events, photos, downloadable press materials, video links, and more music! Click on "Reflection" under discography to hear clips and buy the album at www.cdbaby.com/cd/carmenstaaf. "Reflection" is also available at www.itunes.com.

Winner of the 2009 Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Pianist Competition, Carmen Staaf has performed throughout the United States and at the Festa do Jazz do Teatro Sao Luiz in Lisbon, Portugal, the Panama Jazz Festival, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Netherlands, and at the Concurso de Jovenes Jazzistas (Young Jazz Musicians Contest) in Havana, Cuba. She toured India with the Xylopholks in 2010 and Europe with Benjy Fox-Rosen and Frank London in 2009. As the winner of the 2009 piano competition, Carmen will be a featured performer at the Kennedy Center during the 2010 Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival, Mary Lou Williams' centennial celebration. As a winner of the 2004 IAJE Sisters in Jazz Competition, she performed at the 2005 IAJE Conference in Long Beach, California and the Mary Lou Williams Festival. In 2004, Carmen was selected to attend the International Music Council's International Music Day celebrations in Paris, France, and performed at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago as a participant in the prestigious Steans Institute for Young Artists.

Ms. Staaf has worked with jazz luminaries including Eddie Gomez, Bob Brookmeyer, Oliver Lake, Rakalam Bob Moses, Stefon Harris and George Garzone. As an accordionist, she has performed with Lila Downs at Carnegie Hall and with Klezmatics members Frank London, Lorin Sklamberg (at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan) and Alicia Svigals, as well as with Susan Watts and Elaine Hoffman Watts. She was awarded a St Botolph Club Foundation Grant-in-Aid to record her 2008 album “Reflection”, which was called “profoundly beautiful” and features young stars Austin McMahon, Jorge Roeder and Dan Blake. She can be heard on the New Jewish group Khevre's debut album "Oyfn Sheydveg" and with the Staaf Quartet, which she co-leads, on its eponymous first release, as well as on Richie Barshay's album "Homework" (which features Herbie Hancock on piano). Carmen's compositions and arrangements have been performed by pianist Ran Blake and the Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra, as well as being featured on the Staaf Quartet recording and “Reflection”. She was the pianist in Malian kora master Balla Tounkara's afro-pop group and currently performs with a variety of NYC groups, including the Xylopholks (a ragtime band featuring animal costumes) and the Prana Trio (a creative improvisation ensemble that performs settings of Rumi and Hafiz). She co-leads Four Across, a jazz quartet which has toured both coasts extensively, given clinics at the University of Oregon, and performed at Seattle's Earshot Jazz Festival.

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1
Album Review

Erica Seguine: The New Day Bends Light

Read "The New Day Bends Light" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Impegnandosi nel ruolo di produttore, Darcy James Argue dà particolare considerazione al debutto discografico di quest'ensemble, fondato nel 2011 a New York dalle compositrici Erica Seguine e Shon Baker. La prima è anche arrangiatrice e guida dell'orchestra, la seconda entra nel cast come sassofonista. Dopo varie esibizioni in locali chiave della Big Apple, le due leader hanno selezionato sette composizioni originali dal loro repertorio, incidendole con un ampio organico comprendente talentuosi solisti della metropoli. Alcuni di essi ...

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Album Review

Erica Seguine/Shon Baker Orchestra: The New Day Bends Light

Read "The New Day Bends Light" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The New Day Bends Light, the debut recording by the twelve-year-old Erica Seguine/Shon Baker Orchestra, is interesting on a number of levels, not the least of which is emotional. The leaders and their twenty-one piece ensemble are clearly committed to the music and do their best to breathe life into each of the album's seven numbers, three of which were written by Seguine, three by Baker and the other ("Ose Shalom") by Nurit Hirsh. Aside from that, there is the ...

Album Review

Allison Miller, Carmen Staaf: Nearness

Read "Nearness" reviewed by Stefano Merighi


Una leggerezza inquieta attraversa le tracce di questo bel disco realizzato in coppia da Allison Miller (batteria e percussoni) e Carmen Staaf (pianoforte). La strumentazione è particolarmente adatta alla formula del duo, basti pensare a quanti esempi possono tornare alla mente nella storia del jazz moderno. In questo caso, invece di stupire con le rispettive qualità di virtuosismo—che comunque non mancano -, Miller e Staaf si affidano alla naturalezza della conversazione, senza porsi chissà quale obiettivo, tranne quello ...

Album Review

Allegra Levy: Lose My Number

Read "Lose My Number" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Dopo aver esplorato nell'ultimo Looking at the Moon tredici song ispirati alla luna (dai classici standard “Blue Moon" e “Moon River" ai più recenti “Harvest Moon" di Neil Young e “Pink Moon" di Nick Drake) la cantante Allegra Levy sviluppa nel quarto disco un percorso più impegnativo. Ha scritto delle liriche per nove composizioni di John McNeil, che è stato suo insegnante e mentore al New England Conservatory e l'ha supportata anche in altre incisioni. Il trombettista californiano è ...

3
Album Review

Pat Donaher: Occasionally

Read "Occasionally" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Occasionally sees saxophonist Pat Donaher reflecting on a few milestones in his life to date. He does this by writing and performing compositions which are all dedicated to occasions and people that have been special to him. Donaher's varied set of tunes is played here by an excellent group with Jason Palmer on trumpet, Tim Watson on guitar, Carmen Staaf on piano, Tony Scherr on bass and Allison Miller on drums. Two selections celebrate family weddings. “Wedding Day," ...

3
Album Review

Dan Blake: Da Fé

Read "Da Fé" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


A lot of personal factors go into saxophonist Dan Blake's music on this CD, such as his concerns about the environment, his Buddhist teachings and his social activism. What comes out of this is a style of electro-acoustic jazz which is alternately meditative and fiery. The basic music here was performed in the studio by a quartet of Blake on saxophone, Carmen Staaf on piano, Dmitry Ishenko on bass and Jeff Williams on drums. The tunes were then ...

1
Album Review

Dan Blake: Da Fé

Read "Da Fé" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


It's comforting to know that saxophonist Dan Blake hasn't taken Thoreau's inconvenient truth that “most men lead lives of quiet desperation" to heart. Instead, as his Da Fé (translated: of faith) and his apprenticeships with Anthony Braxton} and {{Julian Lage prove succinctly, Blake intends to bring the music, and the consciousness of our fragility within it, to the fore, in hopes the listener can shake the malaise too and pick up the call for action. Blake escorts his ...

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Radio

The Jazz Session #304: Carmen Staaf

The Jazz Session #304: Carmen Staaf

Source: AAJ Staff


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Event

Peter Kenagy and Carmen Staaf Perform at the Music Workshop

Peter Kenagy and Carmen Staaf Perform at the Music Workshop

Source: All About Jazz

Artists-at-Large presents the Peter Kenagy / Carmen Staaf Duo as part of the Music Workshop series on Monday, April 30 at 8:30pm. Peter Kenagy - trumpet Carmen Staaf - piano Fraternal Order of Eagles Lodge 15 Dana Ave, Hyde Park $7 donation suggested. The Eagles Lodge is accesible by #32 bus and the Commuter Rail (Hyde Park station). Bio: Trumpeter Peter Kenagy's music has been called elegant and adventurous, both modern and rooted in ...

"Carmen Staaf is a remarkably mature young pianist, with a wide palette and secure rhythmic base. In short, she swings! Her command of language anchors a very secure improvisatory base and she has an extremely developed musical sense. A most impressive pianist." - Trombonist/composer/arranger Bob Brookmeyer, 2004

“A new star to discover…a wonderfully melodic and inventive keyboardist.” -Michael G. Nastos, Allmusic.com, 2009

"Winner of the festival's piano competition last year, Staaf could have earned a small slot on the program on the strength of her technique alone. What stood out, though, were her compositions, particularly the fanciful "Merry Go Round," and her trio's fresh interpretation of Denzil Best's "45 Degree Angle," a Williams favorite." - David Malitz, The Washington Post (review of the 2010 Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival opening night concert at the Kennedy Center).

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Primary Instrument

Piano

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

Taught at Berklee College of Music in the Piano Department for four years (2005-2009). Private instruction to students of all ages and levels, with an emphasis on improvisation as well as the foundations of classical technique.

Clinic/Workshop Information

I offer clinics on jazz improvisation for beginners (working with the basics of blues, call-and-response, and swing feel); intermediate students (broadening repertoire and exploring Afro-Cuban and Brazilian influences in jazz); and advanced students (motivic improvisation, advanced jazz harmony and free improvisation)

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Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Hodges: Front and...

Outside in Music
2024

buy

Rivers In Our Veins

Royal Potato Family
2023

buy

The New Day Bends...

Self Produced
2023

buy

Hodges Front and...

Outside In Records
2022

buy

Nearness

Sunnyside Records
2022

buy

Da Fé

Sunnyside Records
2021

buy

Hudson

From: Rivers In Our Veins
By Carmen Staaf

Royal Garden Blues

From: Hodges Front and Center Vol 1
By Carmen Staaf

Cry of the East

From: Da Fé
By Carmen Staaf

Samba de Beach

From: Lose My Number
By Carmen Staaf

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