john carroll kirby

John Carroll Kirby is a dynamic individual. Stylistically, he’s just as hard to define as his career as a musician itself.

Deeply rooted in jazz, Kirby’s distinctive sound blends various genres and styles: funk, fusion, New Age, ambient, electronic, and exotica—you name it. As a sought-after collaborator, he has also worked with such big names as Miley Cyrus, Frank Ocean, Harry Styles, and Solange. In 2023, he even received a Grammy nomination in the “Song of the Year” category for his contribution to Steve Lacy’s song “Bad Habit.”

Since 2020, however, the focus has been on his solo career: He has released eight albums since then and has already earned two Libera Award nominations for Jazz Album of the Year. He regularly receives rave reviews from media outlets with impeccable taste, such as Pitchfork, The Fader, and the Los Angeles Times.

Kirby is also active as a film composer. For example, he contributed the soundtrack to *Cryptozoo*, which won the NEXT Innovator Award at the Sundance Film Festival. He also composed the score for *The Luckiest Man in America*, starring Paul Walter Hauser and Walton Goggins. Most recently, his music provided the soundtrack for the Oscar-nominated short film *Retirement Plan*.

On September 24, 2026, John Carroll Kirby will perform a solo concert at the resonanzraum. Good news: the resonanzraum is located right next to Frank Husemann and Sunny Vollherbst’s Synthesizer-Studio Hamburg. Anyone who has already had the pleasure of seeing John Carroll Kirby perform live can imagine what a wonderful synergy this could create.

The concert marks the first collaboration between Konzertdirektion Palme and the Überjazz Festival. Accordingly, the concert will also be musically framed by music from the turntable—a sort of Überjazz satellite, so to speak.