About
I’m Jake Gotlieb, a composer and multi-instrumentalist from the San Francisco Bay Area. My first instruments are the piano and drums, though I've since branched out to singing, playing ukulele, guitars, electric bass, and violin.
My music is greatly influenced by legendary composers like Hermeto Pascoal, Ralph Towner, Frank Zappa, Egberto Gismonti, and Keith Emerson. My goal is to create interesting music that draws on the old to go in new and exciting directions.
Albums
Tales of the Forest (2020)
The debut album by the Banach-Tarski Paradox features an eclectic mix of Progressive, Hard, and Jazz-Rock inspired by the likes of ELP, Yes, King Crimson, and Pink Floyd.
Fields of Infinity (2021)
The second release by the Banach-Tarski Paradox. This album is Jazz-Fusion oriented with the ever-present Progressive Rock mixed in too.
It Never Ends (2022)
Jake Gotlieb's third album has a more varied influence than its predecessor. This album can be described as a mix of the stylings of Larry Coryell, ELP, and Weather Report and some traditional jazz.
Mecca (2023)
The fourth release by Jake Gotlieb is his most ambitious yet. As the title hints at, this album is thought of as a melting pot of different ideas coming together in one center. Inspired by other composers such as Hermeto Pascoal, Frank Zappa, and Egberto Gismonti as well as classical composers like Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, and Bela Bartok, the music on this album synthesizes styles and techniques from European Modern Orchestral music to Brazilian Jazz Fusion to Arabic to Indian to Avant-Garde Progressive Rock to create something new.
Contours, Vol. 1 (2024)
This fifth release from Jake Gotlieb contains songs named after places in his local Marin County. Many of the songs here are inspired by the pastoral rolling hills, redwoods, and cityscapes that he's grown up around. This album incorporates many instruments across the diverse cultures of India, West Africa, Brazil, Japan, the Middle East, and the Balkans incorporated with western jazz, classical, and progressive rock music idioms.
Contours, Vol. 2 (2024)
This sixth release from Jake Gotlieb is a continuation of his first volume of music named after places in his local Marin County. Like the land-based inspirations of the previous album, these songs are named after lakes, reservoirs, and ocean features. This album uses inspiration from world music in places like India, the Balkans, Indonesia, Brazil, and West Africa, as well as free jazz, avant-garde classical, and progressive rock.
Sometimes (2025)
For my seventh album, I have made a return to singing. All of these songs were ones that I wrote over the last 3 years about a wide variety of subjects from surrealist imagery to social issues to my own personal experiences. This is my most personal album to date not only because of the lyrics but because I play nearly every instrument myself. Applying myself more to stringed instruments over the last year has given me new perspectives on composing. As always, I've tried to diversify the genres of music explored each new album I make. So this one dips into a little bit of big band jazz, funk, reggae, samba, and minimalism among others. It has been an challenge but also a great learning experience writing and sound engineering for different instruments and I'm very proud of the end result. Special thanks to my four guest musicians including my father, Steve as well as Viggo Jensen, Joey O'Neill, and Kai Baker for assisting with some impeccable instrumental parts I could never play! As John Cleese famously said, "And now for something completely different."