For nearly four decades, pianist/producer/arranger Gil Goldstein has drawn … Read Full Bio ↴For nearly four decades, pianist/producer/arranger Gil Goldstein has drawn the musical blueprint for some of the most prominent artists in jazz – and in so doing, has become a highly influential figure in his own right. Gifted with an innate sense of compositional structure and harmonic balance, he has forged a diverse career that extends well beyond his own body of recorded work to include alternating turns as an insightful producer, a brilliant arranger and a prolific composer of more than a dozen film scores for the big and small screens.
Born in Baltimore in 1950, Goldstein began playing the accordion at age five and made the switch to piano a few years later. His family moved to Silver Springs, Maryland – just outside of Washington, DC – when he was in grade school. After high school, his quest to further his musical knowledge took him to no less than five colleges, starting with two years at American University, followed by a year at Berklee, then two years at the University of Maryland, where he studied piano with Dr. Stuart Gordon and received a bachelors degree in music. He earned a masters degree in music in a single year at the University of Miami, followed by a doctorate from The Union Graduate School.
Goldstein’s year in Miami, from 1972 to 1973, proved to be the most important of his early years. “Pat Metheny was a student when I was there,” he says, “and there was also this incredible group of people playing in the Miami area, including Jaco Pastorius and the legendary Ira Sullivan. I had walked into his great jazz scene, completely by accident.”
After Miami, Goldstein moved to New York, and spent the reminder of the decade gigging with a variety musicians: Pat Martino, Pat Metheny Billy Cobham, Ray Barretto, Lee Konitz and others. His recording career began in the winter of 1976 when he appeared on three of Martino’s records back to back – Starbright (Martino’s Warner Brothers debut), We’ll Be Together Again and Exit.
These three projects proved to be the genesis of his work as an arranger and producer. The electric piano accompaniments he improvised on We’ll Be Together Again signaled the string writing that would eventually follow. Shortly after finishing Martino’s projects, Goldstein cut his first solo record, Pure As Rain, in 1978. Seven more albums would follow, including the acclaimed Zebra Coast in 1992.
But even as his recording career was getting under way, Goldstein’s various friends and collaborators began looking beyond his skills as an instrumentalist. And playing jobs began to morph into arranging and producing jobs. Case in point, Jim Hall offered him the dream gig of joining his quartet in the mid 1980s, and Goldstein eventually produced the 1993 Pat Metheny/Jim Hall duet recording, Something Special. He also co-produced, co-arranged and conducted on Hall’s 1997 recording, Textures.
However, the turning point came when Goldstein met Gil Evans in 1982 and began playing with the master until his death six years later. The association with Evans changed everything about Goldstein’s musical perspective and his approach to arranging. “Gil Evans was a philosopher,” he says. “He possessed cultural secrets which I have tried to absorb and pass on further.”
Goldstein’s career split off in another direction in the ‘80s when he took an assignment to score an ABC After-School Special, Summer Switch, which was also the directorial debut of Ken Kwapis (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, He’s Just Not That Into You, The Office). Goldstein scored two more After-School Specials, and eventually composed music for a series of feature-length motion pictures, including Radio Inside (1994), I Love You, I Love You Not (1997) and Simply Irresistible (1999). He also provided orchestration for film composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s music for Peter Kosminsky’s Wuthering Heights (1992) and Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha (1994), and Metheny’s score for A Map of the World (1999). He is also an in-demand accordionist – particularly by film composer Eliot Goldenthal, who has featured him in his music for Frida (2002), Across the Universe (2007), and many others.
Despite his work in film, arranging continued to be Goldstein’s creative anchor. “I kept coming back to working with musicians whom I liked and admired, but I didn’t necessarily want to just play with them,” he says. “I thought I could be more effective as an arranger and find ways to make their music resonate and vibrate according to the principles of the overtone series, which he learned through studying with Otto Luening, the 20th century composer who pioneered electronic music in the 1950s.
The list of musicians for whom Goldstein has arranged is as impressive as it is lengthy: David Sanborn, Bobby McFerrin, Chris Botti, Milton Nascimento, James Moody, Richard Bona, Randy Brecker, Manhattan Transfer, Al Jarreau and many others. He reconstructed orchestrations for Miles Davis’ Miles Davis and Quincy Jones Play the Music of Gil Evans, which won a Grammy Award in 1993. In addition, he produced and arranged Michael Brecker’s last two recordings – Wide Angles (2003) and Pilgrimage (2007) – both of which also scored Grammys.
“I really liked Mike,” says Goldstein. “I was a total fan of his playing, and I liked him as a person. Mike was a bit of a control freak, but the kind that I love and admire. He knew exactly what he wanted and could express it, and when he changed something I wrote, it was clear to me and I understood the intent of the change.”
He adds that Metheny, Sanborn and Botti are similar to Brecker in that respect. “The chance to work with people who have clearly defined musical identities is a gift,” he says. “That way, I can morph into their musical personalities. Then I can develop alternate musical styles when I work with them, which increases my scope. Because of this skill, Pat Metheny nicknamed me ‘the Zelig of jazz.’ I’m flattered by that. As a child, I remember telling my mother that I was going to play piano at an assembly, and that I wished I could be invisible when I played, because I felt I could be more creative, more out of sight and less self conscious. I feel that way to this day. As a producer and arranger, I guess I would prefer that the listener ‘pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,’ just like The Wizard of Oz, and instead focus on the artist who’s making the music.
In early 2010, Goldstein co-arranged and produced bassist Esperanza Spalding’s latest recording, Chamber Music Society, which is scheduled for release on Heads Up in August 2010. “Esperanza’s process was very similar to Mike’s,” he says. “She is so clear in her direction and offers so much richness in terms of the compositions and what she brings to them. We developed a give-and-take relationship that always progressed the plot and clarified the story of the music. In terms of the younger generation of jazz players, I think she leads the list. In addition to her playing, singing, and composing skills, she’s a natural arranger, who I have learned from and been able to share my knowledge with.”
In addition to his work as a producer and arranger, Goldstein has also been a teacher since the mid-1980s – at the Mead School for Human Development, the New School, and New York University. He is the author of The Jazz Composer’s Companion, a collection of interviews with 15 notable jazz composers, a foreword by Bill Evans, and an overview of the musical materials that – as Evans wrote – “impose no style and thus can be used to extend and musician’s vocabulary.”
Born in Baltimore in 1950, Goldstein began playing the accordion at age five and made the switch to piano a few years later. His family moved to Silver Springs, Maryland – just outside of Washington, DC – when he was in grade school. After high school, his quest to further his musical knowledge took him to no less than five colleges, starting with two years at American University, followed by a year at Berklee, then two years at the University of Maryland, where he studied piano with Dr. Stuart Gordon and received a bachelors degree in music. He earned a masters degree in music in a single year at the University of Miami, followed by a doctorate from The Union Graduate School.
Goldstein’s year in Miami, from 1972 to 1973, proved to be the most important of his early years. “Pat Metheny was a student when I was there,” he says, “and there was also this incredible group of people playing in the Miami area, including Jaco Pastorius and the legendary Ira Sullivan. I had walked into his great jazz scene, completely by accident.”
After Miami, Goldstein moved to New York, and spent the reminder of the decade gigging with a variety musicians: Pat Martino, Pat Metheny Billy Cobham, Ray Barretto, Lee Konitz and others. His recording career began in the winter of 1976 when he appeared on three of Martino’s records back to back – Starbright (Martino’s Warner Brothers debut), We’ll Be Together Again and Exit.
These three projects proved to be the genesis of his work as an arranger and producer. The electric piano accompaniments he improvised on We’ll Be Together Again signaled the string writing that would eventually follow. Shortly after finishing Martino’s projects, Goldstein cut his first solo record, Pure As Rain, in 1978. Seven more albums would follow, including the acclaimed Zebra Coast in 1992.
But even as his recording career was getting under way, Goldstein’s various friends and collaborators began looking beyond his skills as an instrumentalist. And playing jobs began to morph into arranging and producing jobs. Case in point, Jim Hall offered him the dream gig of joining his quartet in the mid 1980s, and Goldstein eventually produced the 1993 Pat Metheny/Jim Hall duet recording, Something Special. He also co-produced, co-arranged and conducted on Hall’s 1997 recording, Textures.
However, the turning point came when Goldstein met Gil Evans in 1982 and began playing with the master until his death six years later. The association with Evans changed everything about Goldstein’s musical perspective and his approach to arranging. “Gil Evans was a philosopher,” he says. “He possessed cultural secrets which I have tried to absorb and pass on further.”
Goldstein’s career split off in another direction in the ‘80s when he took an assignment to score an ABC After-School Special, Summer Switch, which was also the directorial debut of Ken Kwapis (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, He’s Just Not That Into You, The Office). Goldstein scored two more After-School Specials, and eventually composed music for a series of feature-length motion pictures, including Radio Inside (1994), I Love You, I Love You Not (1997) and Simply Irresistible (1999). He also provided orchestration for film composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s music for Peter Kosminsky’s Wuthering Heights (1992) and Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha (1994), and Metheny’s score for A Map of the World (1999). He is also an in-demand accordionist – particularly by film composer Eliot Goldenthal, who has featured him in his music for Frida (2002), Across the Universe (2007), and many others.
Despite his work in film, arranging continued to be Goldstein’s creative anchor. “I kept coming back to working with musicians whom I liked and admired, but I didn’t necessarily want to just play with them,” he says. “I thought I could be more effective as an arranger and find ways to make their music resonate and vibrate according to the principles of the overtone series, which he learned through studying with Otto Luening, the 20th century composer who pioneered electronic music in the 1950s.
The list of musicians for whom Goldstein has arranged is as impressive as it is lengthy: David Sanborn, Bobby McFerrin, Chris Botti, Milton Nascimento, James Moody, Richard Bona, Randy Brecker, Manhattan Transfer, Al Jarreau and many others. He reconstructed orchestrations for Miles Davis’ Miles Davis and Quincy Jones Play the Music of Gil Evans, which won a Grammy Award in 1993. In addition, he produced and arranged Michael Brecker’s last two recordings – Wide Angles (2003) and Pilgrimage (2007) – both of which also scored Grammys.
“I really liked Mike,” says Goldstein. “I was a total fan of his playing, and I liked him as a person. Mike was a bit of a control freak, but the kind that I love and admire. He knew exactly what he wanted and could express it, and when he changed something I wrote, it was clear to me and I understood the intent of the change.”
He adds that Metheny, Sanborn and Botti are similar to Brecker in that respect. “The chance to work with people who have clearly defined musical identities is a gift,” he says. “That way, I can morph into their musical personalities. Then I can develop alternate musical styles when I work with them, which increases my scope. Because of this skill, Pat Metheny nicknamed me ‘the Zelig of jazz.’ I’m flattered by that. As a child, I remember telling my mother that I was going to play piano at an assembly, and that I wished I could be invisible when I played, because I felt I could be more creative, more out of sight and less self conscious. I feel that way to this day. As a producer and arranger, I guess I would prefer that the listener ‘pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,’ just like The Wizard of Oz, and instead focus on the artist who’s making the music.
In early 2010, Goldstein co-arranged and produced bassist Esperanza Spalding’s latest recording, Chamber Music Society, which is scheduled for release on Heads Up in August 2010. “Esperanza’s process was very similar to Mike’s,” he says. “She is so clear in her direction and offers so much richness in terms of the compositions and what she brings to them. We developed a give-and-take relationship that always progressed the plot and clarified the story of the music. In terms of the younger generation of jazz players, I think she leads the list. In addition to her playing, singing, and composing skills, she’s a natural arranger, who I have learned from and been able to share my knowledge with.”
In addition to his work as a producer and arranger, Goldstein has also been a teacher since the mid-1980s – at the Mead School for Human Development, the New School, and New York University. He is the author of The Jazz Composer’s Companion, a collection of interviews with 15 notable jazz composers, a foreword by Bill Evans, and an overview of the musical materials that – as Evans wrote – “impose no style and thus can be used to extend and musician’s vocabulary.”
When You Wish Upon A Star
Gil Goldstein Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When a star is born
They possess a gift or two
One of them is this
They have the power to make a wish come true
When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true
When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true
They possess a gift or two
One of them is this
They have the power to make a wish come true
When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true
When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true
The lyrics to Gil Goldstein's song "When You Wish Upon A Star" are a beautiful tribute to the power of dreams and the magic that can happen when we believe in the impossible. The song suggests that when a star is born, it possesses a gift or two, and one of those gifts is the power to make a wish come true. As the lyrics unfold, we are reminded that anything our heart desires can be ours, as long as we believe in our dreams and are willing to work hard to make them happen.
Throughout the song, the theme of fate plays a prominent role, as we are told that fate is kind and brings sweet fulfillment to those who love. Whether our dreams come true as a bolt out of the blue or as a result of hard work and determination, the message remains clear - when we wish upon a star, our dreams can indeed come true.
Overall, this song is a beautiful reminder that anything is possible if we believe in ourselves and our dreams, particularly if we are willing to work hard and trust in the power of fate.
Line by Line Meaning
When a star is born
When something new comes into existence
They possess a gift or two
They have certain unique qualities or abilities
One of them is this
One of their abilities is that
They have the power to make a wish come true
They can fulfill your desires if you ask for it
When you wish upon a star
When you ask for something from someone who can fulfill your desires
Makes no difference who you are
No matter who you are or what you do
Anything your heart desires will come to you
Everything that you truly want will come to you if you ask for it
If your heart is in your dream
If you truly desire something
No request is too extreme
There is no limit to what you can ask for
As dreamers do
Like those who dare to dream
Fate is kind
Luck is on your side
She brings to those who love
Luck favors the people who are passionate
The sweet fulfillment of their secret longing
Their deepest desires are fulfilled in a way that brings happiness
Like a bolt out of the blue
Unexpectedly and suddenly
Fate steps in and sees you through
Luck intervenes and helps you achieve your goals
When you wish upon a star
When you ask for something from someone who can fulfill your desires
Your dreams come true
You get what you want
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Capitol CMG Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: MAGNUS BJORKLUND, PAR HANSSON, HENRIK JANSSON, DENNIS SVEN OLOF LYXZEN, DAVID SANDSTROM, AMUND BJORKLUND, JAMES BOURNE, ESPEN LIND
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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