Albums

Check out John’s albums as a leader below.

For John’s extensive curated playlists, have a listen here.

A longer discography of John’s work as a sideman can be found in the press kit.

 

Featured Album — New Release:

With the release of Pure Imagination: WDR Big Band—Small Group Sessions, a project organised and realized by bassist John Goldsby, the WDR offers recordings of small groups featuring select musicians from the big band roster. The soloists are presented in intimate, transparent musical vignettes.

Listen here …

Pure Imagination: WDR Big Band—Small-Group Sessions

Pure Imagination spotlights the incredible horn players of the WDR Big Band, anchored by Goldsby and Dekker, in “chord-less” trio and quartet ensembles with no piano or guitar—pure melody, rhythm, and bass counterpoint..

Swim for Your Life — duo with John Goldsby & Billy Test

Pure Imagination spotlights the incredible horn players of the WDR Big Band, anchored by Goldsby and Dekker, in “chord-less” trio and quartet ensembles with no piano or guitar—pure melody, rhythm, and bass counterpoint..

Speak with a Purpose

Speak with a Purpose showcases the duo's versatility as they explore the jazz tradition, playing straight-ahead swing, hard bop, free jazz, and beyond. With a mix of original compositions from Billy Test and Billy Strayhorn, the duo celebrates the lush heritage of the piano/bass duo format with their unique and individual style.

I'll Be Around

Billy Test and John Goldsby are proud to present I’ll Be Around, their first album as a duo, which features six enduring songs by some of the most influential composers of the past 100 years. I’ll Be Around celebrates the transparent beauty of piano and bass duo music and spans a century of the popular music tradition—with “Rockin’ Chair” penned in 1929 and “my future” composed in 2020.

The Baden Baden Suite

The Baden Baden Suite features compositions by John Goldsby—conceived during his sabbatical in the German city of Baden Baden. Says Goldsby, “The compositions are a collage of the people, sights, and sounds I encountered during my long stay in this enchanted place.” Goldsby pens six vivid vignettes for the duo with Billy Test to celebrate the lush heritage of the piano/bass duo format with their unique and individual style.

Segment

Segment, a Goldsby/Test/Dekker collaboration, comes directly from the heart of the legendary WDR Big Band. Recorded in June 2020, as part of the WDR celebration of small group music, the album offers a broad range of big-hearted, focused, joyful music from one of the world’s busiest jazz rhythm sections.

The Innkeeper’s Gun

The Innkeepers Gun captures Goldsby, drummer Jason Tiemann and alto saxophonist Jacob Duncan in the middle of their 2009 European tour, and features jazz originals by Goldsby and Duncan, plus a cover of the hit pop tune “Paparazzi” from Lady Gaga.


The Visit

The duo setting in jazz frames the essence of the music—improvisation, interplay, adaptability and fantasy. Two musicians traveling the roads between accompaniment and solo, lyricism and harmony need to assert their musical will, but be completely flexible—sometimes changing course in a heartbeat.

Live at the Nachbar

The Nachbar, (the German word for “neighbor”), regularly features live jazz, and has become an insider’s tip in the mid-west, known for unpretentious, yet state-of-the-art improvised music. Live at the Nachbar with Jacob Duncan, John Goldsby, and Jason Tiemann remains in the “Best Live Jazz Albums of 2008” category.

Space for the Bass

Space for the Bass explores the versatility and potential of the most grounded instrument in jazz—the acoustic bass—in the open musical environment of duo, trio and quartet performances. This program features old and new friends, who are among the top players on the jazz scene today.