Jeff Goldblum the jazz artist

Something exciting has happened to the Billboard jazz charts. Nothing earthshaking really. Michael Bublé’s Love is still No. 1 after seven weeks. But there is now a new title by a new artist that is rocking things up. 

The title comes across as fairly ordinary, The Capitol Studio Sessions. It is also quite misleading. The legendary Capitol Studio does not exist anymore and the live album was not recorded there, but in a Hollywood jazz club. 

The name of the artist though is far from ordinary. It is Jeff Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. Jeff Goldblum? Mildred Snitzer? Is that really Jeff Goldblum?

Pay no mind to the name Mildred Snitzer. That was just the name of a friend of his mother’s that he thought sounded great and is similar to those old-time jazz orchestras. And it is just like Goldblum of the quirky image to choose something like it. Yes, it is indeed Goldblum.

It turned out that aside from being an actor with a flair for strange roles, Goldblum is also an excellent pianist and accomplished jazz musician. He sells, too. His Capitol Studio Sessions is at present ranked No. 10 in the jazz albums chart. It is alongside new guys like Kamasi Washington and legends like Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

We all know Goldblum as the big movie star of the gangly figure and the playful stare with the idiosyncratic speech. Along with Glen Close, Kevin Kline, William Hurt and Tom Berenger, he was one of those actors, who emerged as examples of the hip and the cool of a generation from the trendsetting motion picture The Big Chill.

Goldblum is now world-famous as the star of blockbusters like Jurassic Park and its sequels The Lost World and Fallen Kingdom and of Independence Day and the sequel Independence Day Resurgence. He also starred in Into The Night, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and most recently in Thor: Ragnarok. He also played The Fly in that creepy David Cronenberg flick.

Now while making all those films, plus many others, Goldblum was also practicing his other career as jazz musician. He took his music lessons as a child and enjoyed it. He next made the rounds playing at jazz clubs as a teenager. Then as a successful actor, he would have friends over to his house to play. And they became a band, with John Storie on guitar, Tim Emmons on bass, Zane Musa on sax, Kenny Elliott on drums and Goldblum on the piano.

 Then, they decided to do a real gig that turned into more gigs until it was suggested that they should record an album. And that is how The Capitol Sessions was born. Recorded live, the album is the typical Mildred Snitzer Orchestra performance where Goldblum is pianist and frontman and also the star on the stage. He cracks jokes and banters with the audience and plays jazz.

Goldblum’s jazz belongs to a bygone time. It is our idea of what jazz really is before somebody got into experimenting and fusion and electronica and made the music strange and at times difficult. Not The Capitol Studios Sessions by Jeff Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra.

Made up mostly of standards, the music in the album is light and breezy. It is music to drive around with on balmy nights, to clean the house with on Sunday mornings and to feel good with when you have friends over. Only the first album out and I am already wishing Goldblum will do more. 

Featured artists are trumpet wiz Till Bronner and guest vocalists American Idol finalist Haley Reinhart, Irish nightingale Imelda May and comedienne Sarah Silverman. 

Cuts included are Cantaloupe Island by Herbie Hancock; Don’t Mess With Mr. T by Marvin Gaye; My Baby Just Cares For Me by Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson; Straighten Up And Fly Right by Nat King Cole and Irving Mills; Me And My Shadow by Al Jolson, Billy Rose and Dave Dreyer; Nostalgia In Times Square by Charles Mingus.

It Never Entered by Mind by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart; Gee Baby (Ain’t I Good To You) by Andy Razaf and Don Redman; I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free by Billy Taylor and Richard Carroll; This Bitter Earth by Clyde Otis; Come On-a-My House by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. and William Saroyan; Caravan by Irving Mills, Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington; and Good Nights by Giovanni Rota.