When Michael Fremer — former Stereophile columnist, now editor-in-chief of the revived Tracking Angle and one of the most recognizable voices in the audiophile world — strolled into the Klavierhaus piano showroom on Manhattan’s West Side one cold January morning in 2023, he didn’t expect to walk out with a new obsession. The room was nearly empty, a Fazioli piano gleaming onstage. Then the acclaimed bassist Rufus Reid — an NEA Jazz Master and revered mentor to generations of players — introduced a 22-year-old pianist named Caelan Cardello.
“Five minutes in, it was magical to me,” Fremer recalled. “This kid was lyrical, musical, just hitting. I thought of Bill Evans — not that he sounds like Bill Evans, I hate those comparisons — but the vibe was the same. He and Rufus were meshed together.”
When the set ended, Fremer turned to his friend Robin Wyatt and said it was a shame the moment hadn’t been captured. Then he noticed the microphones. Engineer Duke Markos had been “rolling tape” for posterity. Within minutes, Fremer asked Reid and Cardello if he could release the music.
They agreed, and what began as an impromptu duo set in a 40-seat showroom became Rufus Reid Presents Caelan Cardello, issued in late 2023 on Fremer’s Liam Records imprint, mastered by Bob Ludwig, and pressed on vinyl in a run that sold out worldwide.
To Fremer, Cardello’s playing felt direct and unpretentious. “It’s music for the people,” he said later. “It’s like those Oscar Peterson records you put on at parties — everyone could get into it, whether they were hardcore jazz fans or not.”
Now Cardello is stepping forward with Chapter One, his debut as a bandleader on Jazz Bird Records, released August 29, with vinyl to come. Featuring his working trio of bassist Jonathon Muir-Cotton and drummer Domo Branch, with tenor saxophonist Chris Lewis guesting on three tracks (“John Neely,” “Don’t Look Back,” “Solidarity”), the album balances eight originals with tributes to heroes like Cedar Walton (“Groundwork”), Harold Mabern (“John Neely”) and Cole Porter (“All of You”).
For Jazz Bird founder Geoffrey Hoefer, the project began at a midnight set at Mezzrow. “I was really blown away, one because of his musicianship, his technique and his energy,” he remembers. “But then he kept finishing every song and saying, ‘Well, that’s an original composition that I wrote.’ That is something that I’m always exceptionally interested in.”
That night convinced Hoefer that Cardello had both the chops and the compositional voice to carry a record of his own. By the following spring, the two had formalized a partnership, leading to two rounds of sessions: late 2023 dates at Trading 8s Studios in New Jersey, followed by another two days in January 2024 with fellow pianist Isaiah Thompson on board as co-producer.
“I was even more enthusiastic after that second [set of sessions],” Hoefer says. “The music was so much tighter… eight original compositions, and I think they’re absolutely solid. To see that out of someone on his first album blows me away.”
“I’d call my sound swing — well, trying to preserve swing — with newer, modern melodies, and thinking of different ways to present swing with my own touch,” Cardello, 25, tells JazzTimes. “I usually compose for specific people or times in my life. The ideas come naturally — a little hook, a phrase — and then I let them sit. When I come back, it’s about seeing which ones still inspire me and building from there.”
“A lot of people are asking, well, wasn’t the Rufus album your debut? And no — this album is my debut, because this is me. This is my music. I’m presenting my artistry. It doesn’t take away from the Rufus album … but this is the first time I’m presenting to the world Caelan Cardello and his trio and his sound.”
Coming Up
Cardello was born in 2000 in Teaneck, New Jersey. His father, a percussionist, had a deep love of hand drums and classic R&B — Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the heartbeat of Motown. By middle school young Caelan was splitting his time between jazz and classical piano, an approach he carried into high school and beyond.
A pivotal turning point came in 2012, when he entered the Jazz House Kids summer program in nearby Montclair, run by vocalist Melissa Walker and her husband, bassist Christian McBride. Cardello stayed with the program through his 2018 graduation, gaining what he calls “some of the greatest experiences of my life” — workshops, camps and ensembles that forged his first musical community.
In 2015, while still a teenager, he began monthly lessons with Fred Hersch. The pianist’s blunt, no-nonsense guidance hit him hard. “Some things went straight over my head,” Cardello admits, “but I still go back and watch those lesson videos. They pushed me to prove I could do this.” One piece of advice stayed with him: Never let the left hand become “the claw,” pounding root chords at the expense of subtlety.
As an undergrad at William Paterson University his mentors included Bill Charlap, Harold Mabern, Mike LeDonne, Jeremy Pelt, Vincent Herring, Eric Alexander, Joe Farnsworth, Kevin Hays, Aaron Diehl, Geoffrey Keezer and Dayna Stephens. Mabern’s example — writing tunes for the people he loved — made a permanent impression; Cardello repays it on Chapter One with a performance of Mabern’s “John Neely.” He went on to earn his M.M. at Juilliard in 2025.
“Now it’s official: I’m really out here in adulthood, having to fend for myself,” Cardello says. “This album is a representation of all of these years leading up to this point, where I’m now free to travel, explore, perform around the world and really pursue my dream.”
Along the way, accolades have piled up: the BMI Future Jazz Master Scholarship in 2021, the James Moody Jazz Scholarship for New Jersey and the NJ Governor’s Award in Arts Education in 2018, a finalist slot at the American Pianists Awards in 2023, and semifinalist status at the Herbie Hancock International Jazz Piano Competition later that year.
By his early 20s, Cardello was a fixture in New York rooms like Smalls, Mezzrow, Minton’s, Dizzy’s Club and Jazz at Lincoln Center. A move to Harlem cemented his presence: “It’s great to be able to walk out of my door, hop on a train, and be in the Village in 20 minutes,” he says. He laughs that Harlem’s Jamaican and East African restaurants have also become part of his daily rhythm. “The accessibility, the culture, the vibe — it’s inspiring.”
The Trio
On Chapter One, Cardello makes that leap from apprentice to author, with a working trio that came together organically. Cardello first heard bassist Jonathon Muir-Cotton at a jam session and was struck by “how big his sound was and how deep his groove was.” Drummer Domo Branch, a friend since the high-school Mingus competition days, brought a thunderous yet nuanced style. “I put him and Jonathon together, and it was an instant connection,” Cardello recalls. “They were just swinging.”
The opener, “Gone Fishin’,” is a portrait of his father — not only a percussionist but in more recent years an avid fisherman, someone who cherishes the quiet ritual of loading up his old pickup and heading to the water. “My dad got really into fishing during Covid,” Caelan explains, Zooming in from a lake trip to Minnesota. “It’s something he does to relax. It’s patient, it’s calm, but it’s also very focused. I wanted to capture that in music.”
Cedar Walton’s “Groundwork” is another tribute — a live-show staple because of its simple, sturdy melody and sly harmonic turns. And Cole Porter’s “All of You” shows his debt to the tradition of standards, reimagined through his own rhythmic lens.
The originals cover wide ground. “Steppin’ Up” barrels forward at a breakneck clip, full of hits and turns that test the trio’s reflexes. “Music for the People” is his ode to the blues, written to affirm that the form isn’t only about sorrow. “People usually think of the blues as sad or mournful,” he says. “But the blues can be rejoicing, rejuvenating, healing.” Other tunes like “Where Do We Go Now” carry a more introspective edge, written late at night after a difficult day and shaped into something hopeful.
Process, Mission, Resilience
Part of that accessibility comes from the way Cardello frames his influences. He cites Mehldau and Hersch, Walton, Mabern, Oscar Peterson, Phineas Newborn Jr., Bill Charlap, Wynton Kelly and Art Tatum among the pianists he’s absorbed, but he’s clear about what he wants to distill: melody, swing and immediacy. “I want the music to stick with people,” he says. “Even if they can’t sing the whole tune back, I want them to walk away humming something.”
Behind the scenes, Jazz Bird’s nonprofit model also mattered. Before formally launching the label during the pandemic, Hoefer’s foundation had years of experience funding projects and guiding artists through the recording process. Chapter One is the clearest example yet of that mission. “It’s always been my passion to support musicians, especially musicians that are doing original work and supporting their creative process. If what comes out is exceptional, that’s a bonus,” he says.
Audiophiles will note one more late-stage decision that shaped the finished sound. Preparing the vinyl LP, Michael Fremer urged a fresh remix and master from the original tracks. Engineers Duke Markos and Marc Urselli did the work, and the result superseded earlier versions to the point that all formats now use that master. Hoefer is unequivocal: “Michael was instrumental to this process and to the finished music … his input was so critical to the quality of sound that we hear now.”
Even as the rooms get bigger, Cardello’s mission remains modest and human. “Through it all I remain grateful and humble. I’m so appreciative to anyone who listens and gives my music a chance. I only want to grow, to keep learning and exploring, and to reach as many people as I can in the world — hopefully change people, whether it’s through healing, inspiration or any form of emotional change.”
Fremer, reflecting on Cardello’s resilience, points to one night that said it all. “On his birthday he was in a car accident. His car was totaled, the airbags went off. He could have been killed — it would have been a Scott LaFaro kind of thing. And that night he played at Birdland, downstairs in the Theater, and I thought it was a really strong set.”
If Chapter One marks the beginning of Caelan Cardello’s story as a leader, then the resilience behind it suggests there will be many more to come — a Chapter Two, a Chapter Three — until his book is complete. JT