Did you know Jeff Goldblum is actually a world-class jazz pianist?
11 February 2025, 17:03 | Updated: 11 February 2025, 18:01
Jeff Goldblum Gets A Sensual Thrill From Playing Piano
In case appearing in the highest-grossing films of his time isn’t enough, turns out ‘Jurassic Park’ actor Jeff Goldblum is also a dab hand at the piano.
Jeff Goldblum is everyone’s favourite mathematician-slash-meme from Stephen Spielberg’s 1993 film, Jurassic Park, and more recently the Wizard of Oz in Wicked. But he’s also so much more than that – and it’s particularly great news for music fans.
Turns out Goldblum is a pretty great jazz pianist, and for years has played with his own jazz ensemble, the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra (Mildred Snitzer was a friend of Goldblum’s mum’s, by all accounts). He released a studio album with them in 2018 called The Capitol Studios Sessions.
The album smashed the Billboard charts, jumping to No.1 in the US Jazz Album chart.
Goldblum has been playing the piano for over 30 years and has since released three more studio albums with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra.
Read more: Details on Jeff Goldblum’s new album: Release date, piano covers and more
In his jazz pianist guise, the actor has been surprising and delighting fans with musical appearances for years, including on The Larry Sanders Show a few years back (see below) and at London’s St Pancras Station, where in November 2024 he jumped onto a communal piano to surprise commuters with “a few ditties” while on a promotional tour for Wicked.
He also appeared at Glastonbury 2019, where his orchestra surprised the crowd with a jazz Jurassic Park cover at the end of the set.
Read more: Jeff Goldblum amazes Glastonbury fans with Jurassic Park theme during piano set
Jeff Goldblum - Is there anything he can't do?
Speaking to The New York Times, Goldblum explains that he picked up the piano at a young age: “I’m from Pittsburgh and was one of four kids, so our parents got us music lessons, very wisely and nicely and life-changing-ly,” he says.
“I had a facility for it. But I didn’t yet know the joys of discipline”.
After a couple of years of vague commitment to lessons, it took an intro to jazz to really focus our Jeff.
Jeff Goldblum celebrates the upcoming release of 'Wicked' with a surprise performance in London
“[My teacher] gave me a piece to learn that was kind of jazzy. ‘Alley Cat’ and then ‘Stairway to the Stars’, maybe ‘Deep Purple’, with some interesting harmonies, chords, that were not in the exercises that I’d been doing.
“That did something to my innards. That’s when I got better, because I wanted to learn that thing.”
We’re very glad he did.
