Herbie Hancock calls Carmen Staaf “a consummate jazz pianist with equal talent in composition, orchestration and arranging.” Currently pianist and Musical Director for NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater, Carmen has performed everywhere from the Village Vanguard with John Zorn, to Lincoln Center as a guest soloist with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, to recordings with Natalie Merchant (“Keep Your Courage”) and Lila Downs (“Pecados Y Milagros”). She was a fellow at the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute, where she studied with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. A Yamaha Artist, Carmen has played at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals, the Playboy Jazz Festival (where she performed in a two-piano setting with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter), International Jazz Days in Paris and at the White House, and throughout Europe, Latin America, Morocco, India and Japan. She has been a DownBeat Rising Star Pianist for the last two years. Her 2018 co-led album “Science Fair” (with drummer Allison Miller) made both the NY Times and LA Times “Best of 2018” lists, and received 4.5 stars in DownBeat. She is also on recordings by Allison Miller, Jeff Williams, Dan Blake, Jenny Scheinman, Noah Garabedian, The Erica Seguine/Shon Baker Jazz Orchestra, The Ayn Inserto Jazz Orchestra, Austin McMahon, Owen Broder, Michael Winograd, Kris Allen, Andrew Hadro, and many others.

Carmen’s releases as a leader include “Reflection”, “Eye to Eye” and “Day Dream”. Her composition “Symmetry” (recorded on “Science Fair”) was published in “New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers” (Terri Lyne Carrington, ed., 2022). Staaf’s most recent album with her trio (Michael Formanek, bass; Jeff Williams, drums) is “Woodland” (Newvelle, 2020). She and Allison Miller released their duo album “Nearness” (Sunnyside) in 2022 to wide critical acclaim, including selection as one of DownBeat’s “Best of 2022”. Carmen is a regular visiting artist at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and a faculty member at The New School, Stanford Jazz Workshop and the Litchfield Jazz Camp. She taught in the Piano Department at Berklee College of Music in Boston from 2005-2009. She also taught for a semester at the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music near Chennai, India.

www.carmenstaaf.com