We ARE: Aaron Goldberg, Reuben Rogers & Eric Harland
($20-$35 | 7pm & 9pm sets) The collective supergroup We ARE celebrates 25 years of creative friendship and empathic collaboration between three outstanding jazz artists: pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Eric Harland.
**Aaron Goldberg**
“For over 20 years, pianist Aaron Goldberg has set himself apart as one of the most scintillating performers in jazz,” hails JazzTimes. Goldberg is widely heralded as one of the art form’s most compelling pianists, both leading his own trio and collaborating with such brilliant icons as Joshua Redman, Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Guillermo Klein and many more. Simultaneously swinging and embracing risk, his stylistically fluid, singular voice reveals that jazz is a tradition of innovation.
Goldberg became a jazz devotee in high school as a student at Milton Academy in Boston. He was introduced to the African-American art form by bassist and master educator Bob Sinicrope, and at age 16 began study with saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi. As Aaron puts it, “At first improvisation was a mystery and a puzzle, but soon it became a profound inner and outer journey as life and music entwined.” After receiving awards from Berklee College of Music and Downbeat Magazine, he moved to New York City at 17 to attend The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Devoting himself entirely to music for the first time, he won the NFAA Recognition and Talent Search and IAJE Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Fellowship, attending classes by day and performing in NYC clubs by night, inspired by NYC’s myriad living masters.
**Reuben Rogers**
Imbued with groove and spirit from birth, Reuben Rogers combined the calypso and reggae rhythms of his native Virgin Islands with the gospel sounds of the church and the freedom and improvisation of jazz to create the unique chemistry that would make him one of the most distinctive and in-demand bassists in modern jazz. Rogers’ versatile mastery of both the acoustic and electric bass has led to opportunities alongside some of the music’s most renowned artists, including Charles Lloyd, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Tomasz Stanko, Marcus Roberts, Nicholas Payton, Mulgrew Miller, Jackie McLean and Dianne Reeves, among countless others. Over the last two decades, he’s been featured on more than 100 recordings (including his sole release as a leader, the 2006 all-star session The Things I Am) and countless international tours. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Rogers gives back with numerous workshops, clinics, and master classes around the world.
**Eric Harland**
He has alredy been on close to 500 recordings and multiple film scores at his age of 45
Eric has been recognized in the Boston Globe, New York Times, Jazz Times, Modern Drummer, All About Jazz, The New Yorker, Downbeat, L’uomo Vogue, and other prominent publications.
It has been his privilege to share the stage with masters such as Betty Carter, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Michael Brecker, Terence Blanchard, Branford and Wynton Marsalis, Wayne Shorter, Savion Glover, SFJAZZ Collevctive, and many others, as well as today’s p and ocming artists like Esperanza Spalding, Jane Monheit, Taylor Eigsti, Julian Lage, Stacie Orrics, Robert Glasper, and so on. His current list of performing groups are “James Farm” with Joshua Redman, “Prism” with Dave Holland and Kevin Eubanks, “Sangham” with Charles Lloyd and Zakir Huissain, “Charles Lloyd New Quartet”, “The Marvels” with Bill Frisell, Gred Leisz and Lucinda Williams, “Overtone” with Dave Holland, Jason Moran, Chris Potter, and “Voyager” on Eric’s own widely recognized group.
But Eric doesn’t stop there, he also manages to git in many collaborations with world renowned artists like Les Claypool, “Primus”, “Dispatch”, The Band, KRS1, John Mayer, Gigi Hadid, Spike Lee, Steve Miller, Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson from “American Idol”, Director Julian Rosefeldt on his upcoming film Euphoria, and the list continues to expand.
Eric Harland was honored to be the resident artistic director at the SFJAZZ center for the 2014-2016 season. Also acting artist in resident at The Monterey Jazz Festival 2014 season.
Harland also had the supreme privilege of being invited and attending President Barack Obama’s 2016 White House state dinner in honor of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau