Bennett Paster Trio @ Paradiso, Santa Fe

Keyboardist, composer and producer, Bennett Paster, grew up in Albuquerque and attended Albuquerque Academy from 6th to 12th grade where he studied with music teacher Ken Adkins, who introduced him to jazz. Upon graduating from The Academy, he attended the New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University after which he moved to New York City in 1996 where he has built a career as a creative and versatile musician. Paster has performed at clubs, concerts and festivals in the United States, the Caribbean, South and Central America, Central and South Asia and throughout Europe and has been a featured performer with jazz luminaries including Wallace Roney, Keb Mo, Kurt Elling, Peter Erskine, Billy Hart, Albert “Tootie” Heath, and Yosvany Terry. He has also performed with musical theater and cabaret stars Christine Ebersole, Ann Hampton Calloway and Michael Cerveris. Paster last performed in New Mexico in 2013 at the Outpost, and now, ten years later, he returns with his new trio featuring Gary Wang on bass and Tony Mason on drums, and with new compositions. His mission statement for this band and for his forthcoming recording comes from his search for music that is an antidote to the complex world that we find ourselves in, music that soothes and that is, as he puts it, “at the crossroads of Beauty and Groove, music that is, in a word, Radiant.”

The Bennet Paster Trio will also perform at The Outpost in Albuquerque on Thursday, November 16th at 7:30pm