Music legend Herbie Hancock calls Carmen Staaf “a consummate jazz pianist with equal talent in composition, orchestration and arranging.” She was the pianist and Musical Director for NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater for eight years and has performed everywhere from the Village Vanguard (with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as well as with John Zorn), to Lincoln Center as a guest soloist with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, to recordings with Natalie Merchant (Keep Your Courage) and Lila Downs (Pecados Y Milagros). She was a fellow at the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute, where she studied with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. Later, she was tapped, with Herbie’s approval, to transcribe his performances and consult on his course for masterclass.com. Carmen has played at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals, the Playboy Jazz Festival (where she performed in a two-piano setting with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter), International Jazz Days in Paris and at the White House, and throughout Europe, Latin America, Morocco, India and Japan. She has performed for leaders including the Obamas, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Mayor Mamdani.
As a composer, she has been commissioned by the Jazz Coalition, the Jazz Education Network, and others, and created orchestral arrangements for the American Ballet Theater. Her piece “Symmetry” was included in New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers (Terri Lyne Carrington, ed.). In 2026 she released ContraPunctus’s eponymous debut, played with Brazilian legend Toninho Horta, and recorded in duo with bassist Jorge Roeder. In 2025 Carmen released and toured her album Sounding Line (an exploration of links between Mary Lou Williams and Monk) to critical success and toured with Dee Dee Bridgewater’s We Exist!, Jenny Scheinman’s All Species Parade, and with her own trio. She was a DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Jazz Artist in 2024 and was a Rising Star Pianist in the poll for three years. She and Allison Miller released their duo album Nearness (Sunnyside) in 2022 to wide critical acclaim, including selection as one of DownBeat’s “Best of 2022.” She and Miller also co-lead Science Fair, whose eponymous debut was selected by the NY Times, LA Times and DownBeat in their “Best of 2018” lists. As a side person, she is on albums by Samuel Torres, Jenny Scheinman, Noah Garabedian, Dan Blake, Ayn Inserto, Jeff Williams, Ryan Keberle, Michael Winograd, Allegra Levy, and countless others.