Home » Jazz Musicians » Steve Cardenas

Steve Cardenas

Steve Cardenas has diverse credits as a performer and recording artist. Having started his musical career in Kansas City, he is now an integral part of the jazz community in New York.

Cardenas has backed up such greats as Eddie Harris, Marilyn Maye, Jay McShann, Claude "Fiddler" Williams and Slide Hampton. He has toured Europe extensively, performing at various jazz festivals including the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on three separate occasions and the North Sea Jazz Festival five times. He has regularly performed in groups led by such diverse artists as Paul McCandless of the group Oregon, trumpeters/composers Mark Isham and Jeff Beal, bassists Marc Johnson and John Patitucci, as well as vocalists Madeleine Peyroux and Norah Jones. Steve is currently a member of the Paul Motian Octet + 1, Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra, a group led by Joey Baron called "Killer Joey", as well as the Ben Allison Band. In addition, he leads his own trio performing at various venues around New York City.

Along with performing and recording, Cardenas is on faculty at the New School in New York where he teaches the Thelonious Monk Ensemble and gives private lessons. In 2003, Steve was guest faculty at the California Institute of the Arts and has been invited back for the spring semester of 2010. He has also been invited to participate in the Stanford Jazz Workshop in early August 2010. Other workshops have included Siena Summer Jazz Workshop, Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music, Langnau Jazz Nights in Switzerland, Seda Jazz in Spain and Jamey Abersold Summer Jazz Camps. Also, in collaboration with editor Don Sickler, Cardenas completed work on a book of Thelonious Monk's compositions through Hal Leonard Publishing. The Thelonious Monk Fakebook marks the premier publishing of all of Monk's compositions together, with many of them appearing for the first time.

West Of Middle is Steve's new record recently released on Sunnyside Records. This CD features Ben Allison on bass and Rudy Royston on drums.

Tags

5
Album Review

Steve Million: What I Meant to Say

Read "What I Meant to Say" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


Steve Million, thoughtful, well established, and prolific, has recorded another elegant outing to complement his Jazz Words (Origin, 2021). No vocalist this time, but some old friends from his Kansas City days who combine to produce a wonderfully reflective entry. Million's compositions--and they are all his--are stylish and distinctive. “Open the Book" is an appropriate title for a sonorous and thoughtful entrance, although named for his daughter Peige, at the time of writing, a year old, ...

Album Review

Ben Allison: Moments Inside

Read "Moments Inside" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Delizioso. Le sempre cantabili composizioni di Ben Allison, i raffinati intrecci dei chitarristi Steve Cardenas e Chico Pinheiro, l'insinuante apporto ritmico del leader e di Allan Mednard, fanno di questo 14° album del bassista un'altra gemma. Per timore di essere equivocati non usiamo il termine cool ma in senso ampio quell'estetica è viva, accanto ad aromi soulful, nostalgici echi di Brasile e bossa nova (c'è tutta la grazia di Gilberto e Jobim), più melodie cristalline che si ...

16
Album Review

Steve Million: What I Meant to Say

Read "What I Meant to Say" reviewed by Jack Bowers


A word that springs to mind when listening to pianist Steve Million's quartet is “tasteful." If the music sounds congenial as well, that is probably because “four friends" are performing it. Two of them (guitarist Steve Cardenas, drummer Ron Vincent) were among the Kansas City-based friends who comprised Million's quartet in that city before he moved to New York in 1981; the “new friend" is bassist John Sims who started gigging with the group shortly before What I Meant to ...

Album Review

Steve Cardenas: Blue Has A Range

Read "Blue Has A Range" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Espressi con uno stile del tutto personale, ritroviamo in Steve Cardenas la ricchezza di accenti, le sfumature cromatiche e il patrimonio di sottigliezze melodiche e ritmiche che hanno caratterizzato -da prospettive diverse-chitarristi ben più noti di lui: ad esempio Jimmy Raney, Jim Hall e Pat Metheny. Il chitarrista è tanto significativo quanto riservato e resta per questo poco noto al grande pubblico; eppure ha fatto parte dell'Electric Bebop Band di Paul Motian, del quintetto di Steve Swallow, della ...

7
Album Review

Joachim Mencel: Brooklyn Eye

Read "Brooklyn Eye" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Growing up under the weight of communism in Poland in the late '60s and early '70s, Joachim Mencel dreamed of the freedoms and wonders of America. Stateside relatives sent food parcels, offering him his first tastes of Hershey's chocolate and the inviting aromas of Maxwell House coffee; and Polish public radio station Trójka filled his ears with jazz, gifting the sounds of Miles Davis, among other greats. By the time Mencel first travelled to America, to take part in the ...

13
Album Review

Steve Cardenas: Blue Has A Range

Read "Blue Has A Range" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann


It's not easy to pin New York guitarist Steve Cardenas down to a few main attributes. His playing is unassuming, his compositions are equally subtle and his persona possessed of an even more humble nature, leaving him somewhat hidden in the shadows of the contemporary jazz world. Yet the veteran guitarist has been going at it now for over a quarter century, recording and playing with some of the finest international jazz heavy-weights of today, yesterday and tomorrow. Between Adam ...

Radio & Podcasts

Steve Cardenas, Cory Weeds, Zoot Sims and More

Read "Steve Cardenas, Cory Weeds, Zoot Sims and More" reviewed by Joe Dimino


Neon Jazz continues to focus on the new music coming out during this global pandemic. This week we focus on a Kansas City-native, New York City jazz guitarist Steve Cardenas, who has just released a great new album. We also feature songs from Duchess, Florian Arbenz, Cory Weeds, Steve Slagle and Ambrose Akinmusire. Enjoy the jazz, my friends. Playlist Steve Cardenas “Lost and Found" Blue Has a Range (Cardenas) 00:00 Host talks 6:41 Florian Arbenz “Ambar" Convergence (Florian ...

Read more articles
4

Recording

Matt Slocum Presents "Trio Pacific, Vol. 1" Featuring Dayna Stephens, Steve Cardenas, and Matt Slocum

Matt Slocum Presents "Trio Pacific, Vol. 1" Featuring Dayna Stephens, Steve Cardenas, and Matt Slocum

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Available October 7, 2016 on Chandra Records U.S. Tour Dates: October 18 through November 9 “Slocum served the music with a focus on dynamic micro-detail, which in turn allowed his musicians to say even more. It’s a cerebral concept, one that comes to fruition on Black Elk’s Dream… Like Wayne Shorter’s classic Blue Note albums, Black Elk’s Dream seems to ask questions, leaving the answers open to individual interpretation.”—DownBeat Magazine “Matt Slocum has emerged as one of the ...

51

Radio

The Jazz Session #197: Steve Cardenas

The Jazz Session #197: Steve Cardenas

Source: AAJ Staff


102

Interview

Guitarist Steve Cardenas Interviewed at AAJ

Guitarist Steve Cardenas Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

Kansas City has had a long and storied place in jazz history. From Count Basie, to Charlie Parker and Lester Young, some of the best and brightest in the genre have either been raised or cut their teeth in K.C. While there seems to be an historical tinge to the city whenever its contribution to jazz is concerned, the Paris of the Plains still produces many top-notch instrumentalist and vocalists from its clubs, high schools and universities. With such a ...

100

Performance / Tour

Keith Ganz/Steve Cardenas Quartet Thursday September 21 at Cornelia Street Cafe

Keith Ganz/Steve Cardenas Quartet Thursday September 21 at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street NYC, New York 212-989-9319 http://www.corneliastreetcafe.com between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, F, V to West 4th St

KEITH GANZ/STEVE CARDENAS QUARTET Thursday September 21, 8:30PM

Keith Ganz, guitar; Steve Cardenas, guitar; Sean Smith, bass; Vito Lesczak , drums

You may have heard Steve Cardenas (Charlie Haden, Paul Motian) and Keith ...

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Guitar Talk

AGS Recordings
2021

buy

What I Meant to Say

Origin Records
2021

buy

Moments Inside

Sonic Camera Records
2021

buy

The Women Who Raised...

Blue Note Records
2020

buy

Blue Has A Range

Sunnyside Records
2020

buy

Brooklyn Eye

Origin Records
2020

buy

Old Earl

From: What I Meant to Say
By Steve Cardenas

Compelled

From: Hiding Out
By Steve Cardenas

Videos

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.