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:
Incentive: WDR Big Band—Small Group Sessions, is the second album in a series organised and realized by bassist John Goldsby, The recording features small ensembles showcasing select musicians from the WDR Big Band roster. The soloists are presented in a chord-less setting—no piano or guitar—only drums, double bass, and horn soloists. Check out these intimate, transparent musical vignettes.
Listen here …
Incentive: WDR Big Band—Small-Group Sessions
Building on the beautifully bare-bones concept of Pure Imagination, the first album in the Small-Group Sessions series, Incentive takes the listener deeper into the creativity, soulfulness, and playfulness of the WDR Big Band soloists.
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
Billy Test and John Goldsby—the heart of the Grammy-winning WDR Big Band—release their latest piano-bass duo album … swinging, melodic, modern mainstream jazz. Swim for Your Life is the fourth album release from the duo in 2023, completing a cycle of original and standard duo jazz performances of the highest order.
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 Visit
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.
