ben rosenblum music

A Thousand Pebbles - New Nebula Project Album!

1/5/2023

Hey everyone!

I'm super excited to announce that my upcoming album, A Thousand Pebbles, will be released this February on Friday, February 10th! This is my fourth album as a leader and the second with my six piece ensemble, the Nebula Project, featuring some of my absolute favorite musicians in New York City: Wayne Tucker on trumpet and flugelhorn, Jasper Dutz on alto saxophone, bass clarinet and alto flute, special guest Xavier Del Castillo on tenor saxophone and flute, Rafael Rosa on guitar, Marty Jaffe on bass and Ben Zweig on drums and percussion. The album is almost entirely my original compositions, ranging from straight ahead jazz to Brazilian forró to Irish jigs to Bulgarian folkloric styles. It features both the piano and accordion prominently, including multiple tracks where I play both.

Click here to learn more about the album and read the press release, which includes a lot more detail about the inspiration behind the songs. The first single from the album, Catamaran, will be released on all streaming platforms tomorrow. Once the album is fully released, the link above will also contain more information on how to purchase the album, both physically and digitally. A huge thanks goes out to everyone who was part of this album, especially my family who went above and beyond as always to help make this possible. Read below for the special thanks from the record.

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2022 Update!

5/17/2022

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Hey everyone! It's been a while since I posted an update, but I have a lot of exciting projects in the works so I just wanted to make a quick post with some upcoming news and photos.

Firstly, I have a new Nebula Project album coming out later this year! I had so much fun with the sextet on my most recent album, Kites and Strings, that I went back and recorded another one this past summer. The new album will be almost exclusively original compositions (in addition to one Jobim tune), and features an expanded septet format featuring special guest Xavier Del Castillo on tenor sax, in addition to our core band of Wayne Tucker on trumpet, Jasper Dutz on alto sax and bass clarinet, Rafael Rosa on guitar, Marty Jaffe on bass and Ben Zweig on drums. Looking forward to sharing more info about the release soon! I'm so excited about this project - The Nebula Project was recently voted runner up on JazzTimes' Readers Poll in 2020, and recently we've been able to begin touring. We just came back from a multi-day trip in the Northeast this past weekend and we have more in the works.

With the trio, I've also been getting back to a full-time touring schedule. We did multi-week tours in the South and West Coast in 2022, and I made it over to Europe late last year to do some playing as well. Over the summer, I'll be doing a Northeast US and Canada tour with the amazing singer Laura Anglade, and beginning in the Fall I have a number of tours in the works with both the trio and the sextet. I've also been fortunate to participate in some new groups as a sideman in the past year, including the incredible Ephrat Asherie and her dance company as well as Juno award-winning Indian vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia, in addition to the many beautiful groups I've been playing with for years. As always you can visit my schedule page for the latest updates on where I'll be when. And if you would like to receive an email once a month with the most recent news, feel free to visit my contact page to sign up for my newsletter.

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New Trio Videos from Southeast Tour 2021!

3/15/2021

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Hi everyone! It's been a little while since I've posted, but I hope everything has been going all right for all of you. We were incredibly fortunate recently that we got to go on a tour for the first time in a year. One of our shows at Timucua Arts Foundation was recorded and filmed, and I've shared my favorite songs on my YouTube channel. You can see all five videos in the players below. Timucua is an incredible place, and we definitely hope to be back soon! If you want to support them, visit this link and scroll down to the bottom of the page for the donate button. These videos featured two of my absolute favorite musicians - the amazing Eduardo Belo on bass and Ben Zweig on drums. I'm playing piano on most of them, but I switch to the accordion for Jacob do Bandolim's classic choro, Receita de Samba.

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Third Album, Kites and Strings, to be Released on October 16, 2020!

7/12/2020

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I'm so happy to announce that my third album as a leader, Kites and Strings, is set to be released on October 16! This album is the debut of my new sextet, the Nebula Project, and features mostly original compositions (with a few eclectic arrangements thrown in - Neil Young, Leonard Bernstein and a Bulgarian traditional song). It is also the first album where you can hear me playing both piano and accordion! Listen and learn more about the album here, or continue reading below for some videos and personal thoughts.

The journey of this album is a long one - it started ten years ago in my last year of high school, when I completed the first larger ensemble version of one of the tracks on the album, Bright Above Us, and it includes compositions, arrangements and re-arrangements written across this whole span of time. It is an album that merges my deep love of both jazz and world music styles, and features many of my favorite musicians in New York City. This includes my long-time regular touring trio with Marty Jaffe on bass and Ben Zweig on drums, as well as the incredible Wayne Tucker on trumpet, Jasper Dutz on sax and bass clarinet and Rafael Rosa on guitar. It also features special guest appearances by Jake Chapman on vibraphone, Sam Chess on trombone and fellow pianist Jeremy Corren performing on two of the tracks that I play accordion on. Watching these musicians bring my music to life was such a special experience - after so many years waiting to record these compositions, I felt that I could finally express them in the way I imagined them. Since then, I've been working with my brother Dev Avidon who recorded, mixed and mastered the whole project so incredibly beautifully and guided it through the entire process to completion, and my mom who took the gorgeous cover and back photos and imagined the art for the whole project. I'm really proud of the work that went into this album, and I hope you'll all have a chance to listen to it soon!

If you want to hear a preview of the album, click on the link above. I'm also including four Youtube videos taken by Kevin Jiang at our most recent live performance at the Kitano. These videos feature many of the musicians that are on the album and two of the songs (Somewhere and Laughing on the Inside) that are on the album. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this project and I can't wait to share this music with all of you live.

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March 2020: The Last Eight Months in Pictures

3/20/2020

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Hey everyone!

So much has happened since my last blog post. Scrolling back through my pictures has brought up so many wonderful memories, whether traveling overseas or performing here in New York City. It is a particularly uncertain time right now. Sadly my tour with Gabriela Martina in Switzerland had to be postponed due to the current pandemic, and it is unclear when live performances will resume. But at the very least, being in self-isolation gives me time to share a little bit about all the positive experiences I've had recently, and look forward to many things to come once the virus is past. Best wishes to everyone reading this to stay safe and healthy!

One of the most exciting developments is that I have been performing with my new sextet, the Nebula Project. I mentioned in my most recent blog post that a new sextet album is on the way. The album is making great progress and is set to be released in the late summer, so stay tuned for the latest on this. In the meantime, I debuted the group with performances at the Jazz at 5 festival in Madison, Wisconsin (above) as well as at the Puffin Cultural Forum and in NYC at Jazz at Kitano (right).

I have continued a full touring schedule with my trio. In addition to tours in the West Coast (June), Midwest (August and February) and Canada (October), we did our longest tour yet this past January and February, when we spent three and a half weeks touring in the Southern US. There were so many incredible highlights from this trip, including a TV appearance in Jacksonville on the Morning Show at News4Jax (pictured above) and over twenty shows and three educational appearances throughout the area. The picture below is from our appearance in Orlando, where we also got to work with students at UCF - thanks so much Sandy for the beautiful pictures from this performance!

I have also continued to work as a sideman with Curtis Lundy, Astrid Kuljanic, Gabriela Martina, Pat Bartley (whose YouTube channel J-Music Ensemble is starting to gain some significant publicity - I'm in the playlist linked, which features our acoustic renditions of video game music) and many others, and my travels have taken me to so many beautiful places around the world. Over the summer, I spent three weeks in Croatia, Italy and Switzerland (the last of which I got to perform in as a leader with some wonderful local musicians). While I was there I also took some time off to compose new material for the trio and the sextet, some of which we have been able to debut in our recent performances. I also had the unique and amazing experience of subbing on accordion for the Off-Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish, doing twenty performances between October to December. Below are some pictures - the Colosseum in Pula, the church overlooking Lake Geneva, backstage at Fiddler, a performance with bagpipe in Cres, hiking in Quebec at Lake Gatineau, performing with Curtis Lundy in New Jersey, and finally at home in NYC, both at the Black Cat LES with Pat Barley and at Smalls.

I can't wait to share some music with all of you once the self-isolation is over and live music begins again. Until then, stay well and I look forward to seeing you soon. All the best!

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Mid-year 2019 Update

6/29/2019

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Hey everyone!

It's been a little while since I posted anything. This year has been filled with a number of incredibly special experiences and adventures, and I've been meaning to put together a quick post with some pictures and highlights. So far in 2019, here's what has happened:

Five tours under my name/with my trio, including two on the West Coast, one in the South, one in Canada/Northeast US and one in Japan! These tours featured workshops and concerts at the University of Tampa, College of Charleston and UC-Santa Barbara, performances for multiple jazz societies, including the San Luis Obispo Jazz Society and the Coastal Jazz Association, shows at small intimate house concert venues and at concert halls with 250+ people, and much more.
I recorded tracks for my new album, Kites and Strings, which will be released in early 2020. This is a new project entitled the "Nebula Project," which features a sextet of some of my favorite musicians in New York City, as well as me on piano and accordion. I'm so excited to share this music once it is ready to be released!
Appearances as a sideman in some amazing venues, such as the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. (with Astrid Kuljanic), the Lancaster Cultural Arts Center (with Paul Sanwald Quartet) and the Side Door (with Curtis Lundy). Astrid's show at the Kennedy Center can be live streamed at this link.
Regular appearances at Smalls/Mezzrow late night with Ben Zweig, as well as a monthly video game music jam session alongside Patrick Bartley.
Leader appearances in New York City at Mezzrow and the Kitano, as well as a whole bunch of awesome shows in New York and throughout the Northeast.

I'm so lucky to be able to travel the world with some of my favorite musicians and closest friends, and to have met so many supporters of the music whom I have befriended throughout my tours. These people mean so much to be and make playing and performing on the road so worthwhile. I can't wait to see you all again soon. Thanks so much to all of you, and see you all in the second half of 2019!

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Press from Canadian Tour!

12/12/2018

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Hi everyone! I just got back from a wonderful tour of Quebec and Ontario in Canada, during which we playing eight shows across five cities. While on tour, I was very excited to see a number of great articles promoting the band and our music, including this beautiful feature by Peter Hum for the Ottawa Citizen. A huge thanks to Peter and everyone else who wrote about us and helped generate buzz for the tour. Below are some links to read articles about the band, in three different languages!

Tour Preview - Ottawa Citizen (Peter Hum)
Quebec Preview - Le Soleil (Josianne Desloges) - French
Peterborough Preview - MyKawartha (Lance Anderson)

Toronto Review - Spill Magazine (Conrad Gayle)
Toronto Review - Miki Ando Life (Miki Ando) - Japanese
Toronto Review - Blast Magazine (Jojo Aderson)

While I was in Canada, this great interview I did with WNUR's Geoff Fenton went live as well. We talk about the new album, River City, as well as my career this far and my plans for the future. Check it out! Geoff's daughter Sara did all the editing, and I'm so happy with how it came out.

River City Interview - WNUR (Geoff Fenton)

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Upcoming Midwest Tour: Ravinia and More!

10/10/2018

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Midwest Tour: Chicago, South Bend, Detroit and Lansing!

To celebrate the launch of my second album, River City, I will be doing a number of tours with my trio over the next six months. The first tour on the schedule is a return trip to the Midwest from October 12th-16th. This tour will feature appearances at some of our favorite venues from the previous tour: Merriman's in South Bend, Cliff Bell's in Detroit and Moriarty's in Lansing. I am also particularly excited to be debuting at an incredible performing arts center in the Chicago area called Ravinia. On October 13th at 8:30pm, we will be performing at Ravinia's beautiful Bennett Gordon Hall. On the afternoon leading up to this, I will also be doing a special solo accordion performance of material from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake as part of a plaque dedication at the Legacy Walk in Chicago. This tour promises to be an incredible time, and I can't wait to see all my friends in the area! Click on any of the links above to see more info about each performance.

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Beijing!

8/30/2018

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Thanks to the incredible Deborah Davis, I had the opportunity to visit and perform in Beijing, China to round out a wonderful and busy summer. We played at the beautiful Blue Note Beijing for two nights, and we also had a few days to explore the city together as a band, and travel to a section of the Great Wall. I feel so fortunate that I got to experience this magical culture for the first time, and I'm already excited to go back. Thanks for everything, Beijing!

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Summer update - west coast and europe

7/25/2018

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Hi everyone! Hope the summer is going well. I just returned from a three week tour of Europe with Astrid Kuljanic's Transatlantic Exploration Company, where we traveled across Croatia, Italy, Serbia and Slovenia. Before that, in June, I was with my trio on a extensive West Coast tour that began in the islands of Northern Washington and took us all the way down to Los Angeles. It's been a crazy summer full of magical experiences, and I wanted to share some pictures from the past two months of touring now that I am back in New York City for a few weeks. For those of you in New York City, I have some exciting shows coming up, including an appearance with my trio at the Kitano on August 8th. Hope to see you there!

A huge shoutout to all of the incredible photographers who sent me their photos throughout our trips: Francesco Moretti (first, seventh and last), Mike Stempe (second and third), Silvio Selman (fourth and fifth) and everyone else!