Carmen Staaf and Sounding Line

Music legend Herbie Hancock calls Carmen Staaf "a consummate jazz  pianist with equal talent in composition, orchestration and arranging."  Currently pianist and Musical Director for NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee  Bridgewater, Carmen has performed everywhere from the Village  Vanguard with John Zorn, to Lincoln Center as a guest soloist with the  Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, to recordings with  Natalie Merchant (“Keep Your Courage”) and Lila Downs (“Pecados Y Milagros”).

A YamahaArtist, Carmen has played at venues including Carnegie Hall, the  Kennedy Center, the Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals, the Playboy Jazz Festival (where she performed in a two-piano setting with HerbieHancock and Wayne Shorter), International Jazz Days in Paris and atthe White House, and throughout Europe, Latin America, Morocco, India and Japan. She was a DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Jazz Artist in 2024 and has been a Rising Star Pianist in the poll for the last three  years. She and Allison Miller released their duo album "Nearness"(Sunnyside) in 2022 to wide critical acclaim, including selection as one ofDownBeat’s “Best of 2022.”