ABOUT THE SCOTT ROUTENBERG TRIO

 

The Scott Routenberg Trio is an Indianapolis-based jazz ensemble specializing in Routenberg's award-winning compositions, Brazilian jazz, and fresh interpretations of the standard repertoire.  Formed in 2024, the band features Scott Routenberg on piano, Michael Santos on bass, and longtime drummer with the Scott Routenberg Trio, Cassius Goens III, who recorded on the trio's critically acclaimed Summit Records albums Every End is a Beginning and Supermoon.  

 

"Rising-star pianist...Routenberg has found his own voice in the modern mainstream."
—JAZZIZ

 

The Scott Routenberg Trio is an Indianapolis-based jazz piano trio specializing in Routenberg's award-winning compositions, Brazilian jazz, and fresh interpretations of the standard repertoire. The dynamic, intense and critically-acclaimed trio has been lauded as "an example of moving forward in jazz music" (Chamber Music America), with Routenberg hailed as a "rising-star jazz pianist...who has found his own voice in the modern mainstream" and a "superior modern jazz pianist offering an individualistic take on the classic piano trio" (JAZZIZ).  

 

The trio's debut album 
Every End Is A Beginning, released on Summit Records in 2017, reached #65 on the JazzWeek radio chart, #33 on the Roots Music Report Top 50 Jazz Albums, and was named Jazz Album of the Week by soulandjazz.com.  The Creative Source's Dr. Brad Stone calls the album "an early candidate for jazz record of the year."

 

In 2018 the Scott Routenberg Trio released their second studio album on Summit Records, Supermoon, which features 10 original compositions by Routenberg inspired by his young children.  Supermoon received critical praise as "a work of unified expression from a charismatic trio...with substantial moments of gratification" (Jazz Trail).  Jazz Weekly describes the album as "a decalogue of Routenberg's compositions...rich in lyricism," declaring that "the modern jazz piano trio is alive and well."  SUPERMOON received wide airplay on dozens of jazz stations nationwide and abroad, including Jazz on PRI's "Jazz After Hours," the Jazz Network (Chicago) and The Creative Source. 

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"The trio seems to think as one, sounding quite tight but also spontaneous."
—Scott Yanow

 

The Scott Routenberg Trio has performed across the United States and in Canada at such festivals and venues as Indy Jazz Fest 2015-2018, Elkhart Jazz Festival 2018, the International Trombone Festival (2019 house band), The Green Mill (Chicago) with multiple Grammy-winner Howard Levy, The Jazz Kitchen (Indianapolis), The Velvet Note (Atlanta), Rudy's Jazz Room (Nashville), The Home Smith Bar at the Old Mill (Toronto), The Palladium (Carmel, IN), the Chatterbox (Indy), has opened for legendary jazz guitarist John Scofield, and backed MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón.   

 

THE BAND

 

As jazz educators, Scott Routenberg, Michael Santos, and Cassius Goens III serve on the Jazz Faculty of Ball State University's School of Music, where Dr. Routenberg is currently Associate Professor of Jazz Piano. Michael Santos is a bassist and Florida native with Brazilian roots who is featured on the 2023 Flying Horse Big Band album A Message From the Flying Horse Big Band and has played with Dick Oatts, Dave Liebman, Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, Terrell Stafford, and Adam Nussbaum. Cassius Goens III is a Sakae Drums Regional Artist who has recently recorded and toured with Monika Herzig and Alexis Cole on the album Both Sides of Joni. 

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UPCOMING ALBUM 

 

Scott is currently composing new music for his next album, Georgia Roots, inspired by his home state of Georgia.  This feel good set returns to Routenberg’s roots in funky jazz and hard bop in a toe-tapping and melody-forward mix of blues, swinging grooves, Brazilian jazz, and more.

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