Jeff Goldblum Tells Guardian He Skipped Beethoven for Jazz, Fell for Erroll Garner

Jeff Goldblum spoke to The Guardian about the music that entered his life early and never really left. The actor and pianist, who now leads a jazz orchestra when he is not on set, outlined the songs that shaped his ear in the publication’s honest playlist series.

He started with a confession about lessons at the family home in Pittsburgh. At age eight, Goldblum was supposed to practice Beethoven’s Für Elise for a teacher named Tommy Emil. Instead he gravitated toward jazz arrangements of Alley Cat, Stairway to the Stars and Deep Purple. The classical assignment suffered from neglect.

His first real attachment came from a different direction. Goldblum’s father brought home Erroll Garner’s Misty. Garner, also from Pittsburgh, became a touchstone. Goldblum described the pianist’s block chords and particular rhythm as making the piano sound like a whole orchestra. That record stuck.

The first single he ever bought was Stevie Wonder’s For Once in My Life. Goldblum offered no further explanation for that choice, but the soul standard maps neatly onto the broad musical curiosity he has carried into his own live shows.

The Guardian feature arrives as Goldblum continues to tour with his orchestra. The early influences he named form a direct line to the repertoire he now plays on stage, where jazz standards and classic pop songs sit comfortably next to each other. The kid who would not practice Beethoven grew up to play exactly the music he loved first.