Jon Gold, a pianist and composer, began his musical journey in the San Francisco Bay Area, inspired by his brother Jay Gold of Mushroom Records. He developed a love for blues and jazz, performing with the Palo Alto School District Jazz band and Dizzy Gillespie on KQED-TV. Mentored by Joe Henderson, Jon earned the nickname “Little McCoy” from critic Herb Wong. His acclaimed albums, including “Bossa of Possibility” and “Guanabara Eyes,” showcase his diverse talents. We recently spoke with him about his career.
Jon, it’s great to chat with you! Your musical journey in the San Francisco Bay Area sounds fascinating, especially given your brother’s influence on your early musical interests. It must have been an incredible experience performing with Dizzy Gillespie and collaborating with Joe Henderson during your early years. I’m curious how these pivotal moments shaped your musical style and career path.
I was fortunate to grow up in an area that was near Stanford Univ. As such, there was a vibrant music scene ranging from the birth of bands like the Grateful Dead, an amazing range of performances at Stanford that I could walk to, and a rather cool little jazz club “In Your Ear”, where Mose Allison recorded a live album. My brother Jay was a deep influence on me – he especially loved Delta blues and (I think rather ingeniously!) steered me away from rock etc via the blues and then to jazz. He bought me my first albums which were Mose and then Oscar Peterson. I was hooked! Jay went on to be a co-founder of Mushroom Records which became rather formidable due to the success of the band Heart.
The high school I attended was known for its appreciation of the arts in general and had a robust music program. In fact, Thelonius Monk played a show at our school – the recording of which was just released.
We were lucky to have a jazz teacher who worked to organize shows for our jazz ensemble with luminaries such as trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Shaw, and saxophonist Joe Henderson. I do not want to overstate my association with Dizzy Gillespie! Dizzy played at our concert and gave a small masterclass that was televised on the local PBS station (KQED). I was asked to play piano for the event. But for a 15-year old kid enamored with jazz and studying be-bop, it was a thrill that has no words!
I was lucky enough to develop a friendship with Joe and began to frequent his house in San Francisco where I started studying with him and eventually did some local shows. Joe was a huge influence on my style. By this time, my hero was pianist McCoy Tyner and I couldn’t get enough of that sound. I freely admit to being an imitator but took great glee at the time when noted critic Herb Wong called me “Little McCoy” in a review in the SF Chronicle! Perhaps some of my greatest memories of Joe were going to the legendary jazz club Keystone Korner in the afternoon to go to soundchecks or just hang. I met a galaxy of my jazz heroes there! Joe was one of the most generous and kind people I have met in this business.
You initially pursued a winemaking career. How did your studies in chemistry at UC Santa Cruz influence your approach to music, if at all?
Well, to be honest, I actually intended to do music as my career. I enjoyed some early successes but, to be quite frank, I just didn’t like many aspects of lifestyle. I saw too many talented friends succumb to drugs and alcohol. I saw too many extremely talented musicians just unable to get the right gigs. Too many times one has to work for next to nothing because you are told it is an “opportunity.” I went on a small tour with a trumpeter who was a Blue Note artist at one point and the tour ended with a fight in a club parking lot as the owner wouldn’t pay. It is a tough business and as a middle-class kid, I wasn’t sure I had the “right stuff”. Another odd fact about me is that, for my entire life, I have difficulty staying up late! And in that world, it is a regular day to play until 2AM and then go out for dinner etc. I ‘d be lucky to keep my eyes open and worse yet, I’d wake up at 6AM! It sounds odd, but it really was a factor in trying different career options.
My interest in winemaking was an outgrowth of a group of “bohemian” people with whom I was very close. This was when the artisan winemaking trend in California was taking off. We began to make wine, eventually leased some small vineyards, and invested a lot time and energy. It turns out that there are a large number of decisions in winemaking based on chemistry and chemical analysis. I more or less drew the short straw to take some chemistry classes to learn to do these analyses.
UC Santa Cruz was another paradise for music. Its idyllic setting attracted talented people from all over the world and there was a rich music scene. In these times (1980ish), one could rent a bungalow on the beach for cheap and thus Santa Cruz was a haven for the arts. I had the chance to play in so many different jazz groups and developed a deep love for Latin music in general.
What drew you to the jazz-influenced music of Brazil, and how did your time living and working in Rio de Janeiro impact your compositions?
I think it was in high school when I heard Wayne Shorter’s collaboration with Milton Nascimento (Native Dancer). I was floored and transfixed by the sound. I began to soak up everything I could. In college, I discovered MPB (“Música Popular Brasileira”) which is a general term for all kinds of mixtures of Brazilian jazz, pop, and traditional musics. It was an entire new universe for me and I explored it tirelessly. Ivan Lins made a particularly large impact on me. He brings together just about every element of music into the most beautiful and sophisticated ear candy.
I wouldn’t trade my time working and living in Rio for anything. I could go on for hours. But to live in that milieu, meet luminaries like AC Jobim and Hermeto Pascoal while seeing a world so unlike my own was transformative. As an example, inflation at that time was running up to 150% a month! The government would announce a new currency every few months out of the blue. Just crazy! I could wax on and on about the allure of Rio but I think I want to mention how it was also very transformative to see abject poverty, illiteracy etc. While it is true that Brazilians have an amazing resiliency, life for so many was very difficult. I took away from that a sense that we here in the States are largely ungrateful for easy we have it and complain over the smallest things.
You have a fascinating story about melting a diamond during your time at Cornell. How did this unexpected event affect your life and career?
Again, this is a story for a complete other interview! But briefly, I was doing some work for a geophysicist on the high temperature and high pressure behavior of carbon. We had a very powerful laser that had not been properly aligned, Somehow I managed to fix it but when I ran the next experiment the power was still at “11” (in the Spinal Tap sense) and stuff exploded. When the dust cleared I learned after investigations that I had melted the diamonds used to create high pressure. It was my 15 minutes of fame in science! There was no long term benefit as I had really at that point decided to move back to California to focus again on music.
Your new album “Guanabara Eyes” features collaborations with prominent Brazilian musicians. How did these collaborations come about, and what was the creative process like?
I am really excite about this album! With the exception of one tune (which was co-produced by the legendary Luiz Ribeiro) I co-produced it with the grand master of Brazilian drums Mauricio Zottarelli. Mauricio is one of the busiest guys out there constantly touring with Ivan Lins, Eliane Elias, Paquito D’Rivera etc. He had recorded on two previous albums of mine when he lived in NYC about 15 years ago and we had always remained in contact. Mauricio had expressed an interest in doing more producing and it was perfect for me. We are such a great match! I love to compose but I am not so good at taking care of all the details to get things recorded. Mauricio has incredible skills for organization and picking the best musicians for each tune. Since he is back in Brazil, we worked mainly by Zoom. The album has songs with entire string orchestras that were recorded all over the world. It was a huge project, but I think I can say (with some objectivity) that there is much to please a wide audience. By the way, it can be found on all platforms: the Spotify link is here and the Apple link is here.
Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind “Guanabara Eyes” and what you hope listeners will take away from it?
The title “Guanabara Eyes” is an inside joke with my wife. When we first met I used to tell her that her eyes were the color of Guanabara Bay. The CD tells stories and is meant to travel across the diaspora of human emotion. There are wistful tunes, danceable tunes and humorous tunes. One I really love that features the amazing singer Marina Marchi (who the world will know of very soon!) is the Squirrel Samba. It captures the herky-jerky dances of the squirrels I love to watch in my yard. There is a video of the tune available here:
Several tracks on your new album are dedicated to important figures in your life. How do these dedications reflect your personal and musical journey?
As I mentioned above, my life has always had a two-track path – music and science. I mentioned how difficult it was for me to live the life of a musician. As a result, I can barely express my respect for the musicians I know who work so hard to learn their craft, travel hours to gigs that pay little, don’t have health insurance etc etc. The men and women are all absolute heroes to me. They give so much to the world and (in material terms) get back so little. They make us smile and cry and tap or feet. If I could I would write compositions to honor dozens of musicians I know like that. The ones recorded here though are manifestations of that admiration.
Your compositions are known for blending various genres. How do you approach creating music that appeals to both serious jazz listeners and casual audiences?
Interesting question as I am struck by the differentiation between “serious” and “casual” audiences! Music has always been so central to my emotional life that I cannot really think of times when I put on music “casually.” But to connect to any listener there has to be elements to make a connection. That could be anything. In vocal music with lyrics, there is an advantage as the song literally tells a story. My music is mostly instrumental and so the “hooks” have to be more ephemeral. I think a lot about creating moods. It is interesting to note that when I am composing 90% of the time the initial names for the tunes are something like “Tone Poem #12” or “Song Without Words #4”. It takes me a long tie later to listen and give a title that has a more specific meaning. I would like to think that listeners would listen and see in their minds eye what they see and maybe pass a few minutes in a state something the opposite of “mindfulness”!
Besides “Guanabara Eyes,” what other projects are you working on, particularly in film and TV scoring?
I am currently working on three new CDs! I am finishing a release with Mauricio for 2025 that I am very excited about. Again some compositions with full orchestras. There is a tribute to Sergio Mendes and a dreamscape about the flying horse Pegasus! Bassist extraordinaire Mark Egan just recorded on two tunes – amazing stuff! I am also working on a CD of post-bop jazz reaching back to my “McCoy” roots. There are a number of tribute tunes there too including ones for Gary Bartz, Charles Tolliver and Billy Harper. Finally I am finishing a CD of my classical music and music appropriate for TV/Film scoring. I worked with many great European players on this and one composition features violinist Antoine Silverman from the Philip Glass Ensemble (and musical director for the Muppets!). I am especially proud to have on this album a composition recorded by Czech National Symphony Orchestra of Prague. Here is the video of this composition
Future Aspirations: What are your future aspirations as a musician and composer, and how do you see your music evolving in the coming years?
As I focus more on composing now I think a lot about achieving a piece that is “immortal”. Prelude in C by JS Bach, The finale of Stravinski’s Firebird or the Girl from Ipanema by Tom Jobim. I think when these kinds of pieces represent a connection with the nexus of time and space. They are sacred. Would that I could achieve a composition like that it would not be for my name as I won’t be here but to have perhaps known the feeling of stepping into that realm even for a moment and knowing that you will bring joy to generations to come.
What advice would you give to aspiring musicians who are looking to carve their own path in the music industry?
I have no right to give advice. Music is so intense and personal. I just recently saw a clip of an interview with Wynton Marsalis which shocked me. Here is a man who has rightfully enjoyed nearly every success available. Yet he spoke of loneliness. He spoke of how intensely profound yet profoundly lonely it is to be a musician. You have to feel such difficult things at times. Again passing for difficult times. In total, I would say to anyone that the most important audience for your music is you. Your greatest measure of success and most important critic is you. But please: be kind to yourself. We are all forever students and only learn through our mistakes.
For further information on Jon, please visit the following links
Photo credit: Jack Frisch
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