Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, and Bill Stewart played the Brighton Auditorium in Salt Lake City on Monday (9/29/2025).
It was the Jazz Mentors Foundation’s first concert of their season, featuring Goldings on organ, Stewart on sticks and Bernstein on guitar, three musicians who have learned how to intertwine their talents very well over the past 30+ years. The playful talent they exude ran rampant throughout their hour-and-a-half long performance.
Clinics happened earlier in the day, as the focus for the organization’s performances surround education. Students and educators are invited to attend for free, and that’s key. Students being properly exposed to honed musicians like this trio so early in their lives is a rare gift. They get the long chance to forget distractions and learn what a good beat feels like. They discover musicians that can swing hard (gloriously so). And they get to witness what it’s like when a drummer like Stewart is allowed to break away into a solo and share exactly what he can do without his counterparts, an example to be inspired by, and one to aspire to.
Photo courtesy of Brad Montgomery
It’s important to remember that not all concerts take place in bars and local watering holes. Sometimes it’s far less about scenery than it is about substance. Does sitting on cushioned seats in a high school auditorium detract from the concert experience? Hardly. If anything, it means a greater focus on what’s transpiring.
For a trio that stays relatively still — each player never leaving his respective place on the stage — it’s alarmingly refreshing to witness how many places they take their crowd. From their takes on Thelonius Monk’s “Light Blue” and Irving Berlin’s “They Say It’s Wonderful” to offering originals like “Little Green Men” (a nod to the great Grant Green) and “Hesitation Blues,” they performed so smoothly, it was almost like they were dancing. Smooth, but not effortless (sweat rags were used). And witnessing how the trio rarely knew what song to do next, they seemed to casually surprise themselves forward, choosing songs along their way.
By the time the encore ended — one of the greatest takes on Don Redman’s 1929 standard “Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You” these ears have ever heard — the trio had won its second immediate standing ovation, and each was so well deserved.
The Jazz Mentors Foundation brings world class jazz artists to Salt Lake City for clinics and concerts primarily for educational purposes, as stated earlier. The public’s invited to share the experience by paying admission. And with wellknowns like Preservation Hall Legacy Band and Veronica Swift planned in the coming months, chances are interest will run sky high, both with free ticket getters and ticket buyers alike.
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