Phillip Golub

Phillip Golub (b. 1993), "a musician in fast ascent" (Wall Street Journal) with "seemingly boundless creativity" (Downbeat), is a pianist, improviser, and composer based in Brooklyn, NY. Originally from Los Angeles, he creates highly original and expressive music, grounded in but not constrained by his engaged practice in jazz, creative music, and new music. Technically audacious, Phillip sublates sound worlds as distant as Thelonious Monk and Alexander Scriabin, the ars subtilior and Cecil Taylor, negating conventions, yet building on traditions. ​He has been described as "a polymath who elides any divide between ​improvised and composed music, or jazz and contemporary approaches [...] whose practice can't be contained by genre or discipline" (The Wire Magazine). Phillip’s recordings have been praised as “cutting edge” (Sequence 21) and containing “a profound concept […] triumphant […] fascinating” (Pop Matters). As a player, he has been described as bringing “assurance, charisma, and infectious enthusiasm” (Steve Smith) to his performances and manifesting “exhilarating energy, charisma, and a canny ability to transform the complex and even inscrutable into sophisticated yet joyful noise” (Allmusic.com). Phillip has an unwavering commitment to honoring the genealogy of jazz. He worked with Wayne Shorter and esperanza spalding on their opera … (Iphigenia). He continues to play a crucial role in the Shorter estate, digitizing and preparing manuscripts for publication.