Education
BM, The Hartt School, University of Hartford
MM, State University of New York at Purchase
A seasoned and highly respected figure on the Hartford, Connecticut jazz scene, guitaristeducator Rich Goldstein has been gigging, recording, and sharing the bandstand with his mentors and his students over the past 30 years. His latest recording, Into the Blue, is a swinging affair that pairs him with Hammond B-3 organist and longtime collaborator Yahn Frankel alongside vibraphonist Behn Gillece and drummer Ben Bilello. Goldstein and his accomplished crew deliver in old school fashion on a program of soul jazz takes on well known standards by Thelonious Monk, Django Reinhardt, Horace Silver, Stevie Wonder and the Beatles, along with two numbers popularized by Dinah Washington and Jack McDuff. “I love the organ groups going back to Wes Montgomery’s first album with Mel Rhyne, which was heavily influential for me,” said the guitarist. “But I liked all of the organ groups from those times -- Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Dr. Lonnie Smith. I came up with all that stuff. And I’m a blues player at heart. That’s really where I come from.”
Born in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, Goldstein’s family moved to South Windsor, Connecticut in his childhood. By the time he was 12 he played in various high school bands performing at school dances, local fairs, and the occasion nightclub, like The Russian Lady in downtown Hartford.
Following his early years playing pop and rock, Goldstein began gravitating toward jazz. “When I bought my first records outside the Stones, Hendrix, Beck and Led Zeppelin, it was Wes’ Full House, Barney Kessel’s ’57 Poll Winners, Charlie Parker’s Now’s the Time, Frank Zappa’s Them or Us and Alan Holdsworth’s Metal Fatigue, all bought on the same day when I was 13 or 14. These sounds really opened my mind to the possibilities outside of what I was hearing on mainstream radio. I really loved music and guitar and was exploring all the possibilities so I studied classical guitar for about a year and auditioned for the Hartt School and got in”, “I did a year as a Classical major but then one of the bands I was in ended up getting signed to an indie label and moving to Minneapolis when I was 18 or 19,” he recalls. “We toured all around the Midwest, but nothing else really came of it.” “While I was in Minneapolis I really got into John Scofield and spent a lot of hours trying to play like him.”