All About Jazz: Brandon Goldberg ‘Let’s Play!’

Brandon Goldberg’s debut album offers proof positive that Joey Alexander is not the only piano prodigy working in the contemporary jazz field today. But the young man with his name at the top of the bill here no more needs to flaunt his instrumental technique than his composing chops: a preponderance of standards like Duke Ellington’s “In A Sentimental Mood” and Lennon/McCartney’s “Blackbird” surround three comparably distinct originals. The musicianship itself is likewise divided between the rollicking and the ruminative, though it’s permeated with a fluidity that’s simultaneous accessible and provocative; bassist Ben Wolfe and drummer Donald Edwards defer to their precocious bandleader, but only enough so they don’t wholly sublimate their own instrumental personalities. And the same goes for special guest tenor saxophonist Marcus Strickland: his appearances on two cuts, Brandon’s own “You Mean Me” and and Herbie Hancock’s “Dolphin Dance,” spice up the proceedings in exactly the same proportion as the use of Fender Rhodes piano to complement the acoustic grand. To say this record opens up possibilities for Brandon Goldberg is to understate the potential of his recording career.