Edsel Gomez Latin Jazz Trio
Arthur's Tavern57 Grove Street, New York 10014
Edsel Gomez brings his Latin Jazz Trio to Arthur’s Tavern for an evening built around the pianist’s command of Afro-Caribbean rhythm and long experience across Latin music. The bill identifies a trio, though the other musicians and the group’s instrumentation are not named in the available listing. Gomez has played salsa since his pre-teen years, so this is a chance to hear a player whose musical grounding reaches from those early bandstands to New York’s jazz community.
Born in Puerto Rico, Gomez began studying piano at five and relocated to New York in 1997. His US debut, Cubist Music, received Grammy and Jazz Journalists Association Award nominations. He also arranged, directed and played on Dee Dee Bridgewater’s Grammy-winning Eleanora Fagan (1915–1959): To Billie with Love from Dee Dee, and worked with Bridgewater as pianist, arranger, musical director and composer for more than 14 years of international touring. His collaborations also include recording and touring with Jack DeJohnette, Don Byron, Brian Lynch and Eddie Palmieri. The available sources include no independent review quotations, but they trace a career connecting Puerto Rican musical roots, salsa, Afro-Caribbean rhythm and major jazz collaborations.
Arthur's Tavern is a basement club in the West Village where jazz, Latin, and blues are played with deep roots and modern energy. The stage is small, the room intimate, and the audience sits close to the musicians, often with a few people standing near the back. Shows start around 5 PM and go late, with some sets extending into the early hours. The club has a history of hosting top-tier performers since 2001, including regular appearances by Yuichi Hirakawa Jazz Group. It's a place where music is the center, and conversation flows naturally between the audience and the performers.