Ryan Keberle

Trombonist Ryan Keberle moves fluidly between modern creative jazz, classical forms, indie rock, and Latin idioms both as a soloist and as a composer. Long associated with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, he first drew notice through his Double Quartet, whose self-titled 2003 debut was followed by Heavy Dreaming in 2010. He also directs the quartet Catharsis alongside guitarist Camila Meza; the group has issued a series of incisive, politically charged recordings for Greenleaf Music—Find the Common, Shine a Light in 2017, The Hope I Hold in 2019, and Music Is Connection in 2024. Additional partnerships have linked him with Sufjan Stevens, David Byrne, Alicia Keys, and South American figures such as Ivan Lins and Emilio Sola. Dividing his time between Brazil and France, Keberle leads Collectiv Do Brasil, responsible for Sonhos da Esquina in 2022 and Considerando in 2023, while his chamber-jazz group Reverso has reinterpreted works by Maurice Ravel on 2018’s Suite - Ravel, Gabriel Fauré on 2022’s Harmonic Alchemy, and Lili Boulanger on 2024’s Shooting Star - Étoile Filante.

Born in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1980, Keberle was raised in a household where his father played trumpet and taught music and his mother played piano while directing a church choir. He began on piano, added violin through the Suzuki Method, and took up trombone in fifth grade. During his teenage years he balanced an affinity for horn-driven ensembles such as Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Tower of Power with close listening to recordings by John Coltrane and Dexter Gordon. Private study with Spokane Symphony principal trombonist David Matterne complemented early appearances with the Spokane Youth Symphony, the Spokane Jazz Orchestra, and the Whitworth Jazz Ensemble. After high school he pursued dual degrees in physics and music at Whitworth University in Washington before transferring to the Manhattan School of Music, where Steve Turre instructed him on trombone and Michael Abene and Manny Albam guided his composition work. He later received an artist diploma in jazz performance from Juilliard.

Now based in Brooklyn, Keberle has appeared with the David Berger Jazz Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra. His first recording as a leader arrived in 2003 with The Ryan Keberle Double Quartet, followed by Heavy Dreaming in 2010. In 2013 he introduced the pianoless quartet Catharsis—featuring trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, bassist Jorge Roeder, and drummer Eric Doob—on Music Is Emotion. While touring with Sufjan Stevens he also collaborated with Ivan Lins, David Bowie, Alicia Keys, and David Byrne. The 2014 Catharsis release Into the Zone, issued on Dave Douglas’s Greenleaf Music label, incorporated Chilean vocalist-guitarist Camila Meza; she remained for 2016’s Azul Infinito, shaped by Keberle’s encounters with South American composers including Ivan Lins, Sebastian Cruz, and Samuel Torres. Find the Common, Shine a Light followed in 2017, reflecting on political upheaval in the United States.

Around the same period Keberle established the international chamber ensemble Reverso with pianist Frank Woeste and cellist Vincent Courtois; their debut, Suite Ravel, appeared in 2018 with drummer Jeff Ballard and paid tribute to Maurice Ravel. Catharsis returned in 2019 with The Hope I Hold, its title drawn from Langston Hughes’s poem “Let America Be America Again.” Reverso issued Melodic Line in 2020 and the concert recording Live, captured at Le Triton in Paris, the next year. Building on a 2017 visit to São Paulo, Keberle assembled Collectiv Do Brasil with pianist Felipe Silveira, bassist Thiago Alves, and drummer Paulinho Vicente; the quartet, inspired by Toninho Horta and Milton Nascimento, released Sonhos da Esquina in 2022. That same year Reverso explored Gabriel Fauré on Harmonic Alchemy, while Collectiv Do Brasil examined Edu Lobo on 2023’s Considerando. Reverso’s fifth album, Shooting Star - Étoile Filante, arrived in 2024 and centered on Lili Boulanger, coinciding with Catharsis’s Music Is Connection.