Biography

Gil Goldstein (born November 6, 1950, in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American jazz pianist and accordionist. He has won 5 Grammy Awards and he was nominated 8 times . He began studying accordion at age 5 after noticing it in The Lawrence Welk Show and stating he instantly connected with it personally, but later moved on to cello and piano at age 10. He studied at the Berklee College of Music and by 1973 was working with Pat Martino and Lee Konitz. He started with the Gil Evans Orchestra in the early 1980s and also worked with Wayne Shorter, Billy Cobham, and Jim Hall. He returned to accordion for an album by Michel Petrucciani and occasionally uses it on his solo albums. As an accordionist he toured with Richard Galliano in 2000 but also played piano on the tour. During the 1980s and 90s he was a member of the group Elements.

In 1990 he toured Germany with the Blues Brothers, temporarily replacing Leon Pendarvis on keyboards.In 2007 he released the album The Music of Elton John (ObliqSound, 2007) with Steve Swallow, Paul Motian, and Italian saxophonist Pietro Tonolo. The quartet performed jazz arrangements of some of Elton John's most popular songs.

Goldstein composed music for the films Radio Inside (1994) and Simply Irresistible (1999). He performed "I Love Paris" in the film De-Lovely. Two of his Grammy Awards were for his production and arrangement credits for the album Wide Angles by Michael Brecker. He has taught at New York University.