John Henry Goldman of West Windsor presents jazz every Tuesday evening at Sunny Garden Restaurant, 15 Farber Road, West Windsor. He will also be playing at the West Windsor Farmer’s Market on Saturday, October 29, from 10 a.m. to noon. Already known to many residents through his work as a music teacher, basketball coach, and Pilates instructor, he is ready to share to share his music with the community.##M:[more]##
He began playing the trumpet at age six, studied it throughout his childhood, and decided at age 17 to continue to study and play rather than become a professional musician. From 1975 to 1987, he directed Camp Takajo, a camp in Naples, Maine, with offices in Princeton, run by his father, and led the staff and camper musicians in bands. He has continued to play with big bands, small jazz collaborations, rock groups, a reggae band, and is currently first trumpet with a Latin band, Rumbason Orqesta, based in North Plainfield.
“One of my concerns in playing the trumpet in the environment of a classy restaurant such as the Sunny Garden is not to intrude on the dining atmosphere,” says Goldman. “I am delighted to find that the mute I use with the horn succeeds in softening the sound without changing the quality of my tone.”
He was raised on the north shore of Long Island surrounded by music created by daily concerts of Chopin and Liszt performed by his siblings and the living room record player emanated sounds of classical masterpieces, showtunes, big bands, and popular music.
He followed his parents to the Princeton area in the early 1970s. He has lived with his wife Martha in West Windsor since 1977. Goldman ran the Basketball Club, a recreational group of kids learning to play basketkall in the spring and fall with a focus on treating each other with respect rather than winning, losing, and teams. He also ran the Leading Tone Musical Workshop for both children and adults.
Martha is a nurse manager of the maternity floor at Capital Health System. They have two adult sons.
“In the latter years of running the basketball program I would be on the court teaching for up to 25 hours a week,” Goldman says. “I could feel my body breaking down and I had chronic lower back problems.”
This led him to Pilates Studio in Princeton where he took reformer and mat classes for a year — clearing up his back problems. His teacher, Anthony Rabara, knew of his background as a teacher and offered him the chance to train to work in his studio. “I jumped at the opportunity and have been teaching Pilates ever since,” he says.
He credits his music teachers, Jimmy Maxwell and Nic Rodriguez, for their encouragement and to always have a rich, warm tone. Maxwell was the lead trumpet in Benny Goodman’s band and was the first trumpet for the Johnny Carson Show during the New York years. Rodriguez played with Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Benny Carter, before settling into life as a soloist and teacher.
“A jazz trumpet player at heart, I enjoy and value music of all genres, from rap to reggae, rock to blues, classical and showtunes,” says Goldman, who recently entered the second half-century of his life. “It’s just become time to share with others the music that has been a constant part of my life since early childhood.”
