Chris McCarthy - LYDIALIEBMAN.COM

Too Late To Quit
Release Date: September 18, 2026
Label: La Reserve

Too Late To Quit, pianist Chris McCarthy's fifth album as a bandleader arrives on the tenth anniversary of McCarthy's move to New York, the album reflects a decade spent establishing himself as one of the city's most versatile pianists, composers, and collaborators. Across eight original compositions, McCarthy draws together the many musical directions his career has taken, pairing his signature compositional voice with poignant original lyrics. Joining him are the members of his working quintet including trumpeter Takuya Kuroda, baritone saxophonist Eden Bareket, bassist Sam Minaie, and drummer Steven Crammer, with vocalist and longtime collaborator Vanisha Gould featured on five tracks.

A play on the title of and companion to his warmly received sophomore album, Still Time To Quit (Ropeadope, 2020), Too Late To Quit takes its inspiration from McCarthy's first decade in New York. Conceived to mark this milestone, the project finds him reflecting on the musical life he has built since arriving in the city. "I was at first considering recording an album of all Great American Songbook standards," he says. "But I started wondering why I couldn't just write my own standards? I've spent most of my life learning and performing this repertoire that I love so much."

Known for his "high skill and sensitivity" (The New York Times), McCarthy has quietly become one of New York's most sought-after pianists, equally at home leading his own projects and navigating demanding work as a sideman. In just the past two years, he has appeared on recordings by Aubrey Johnson, Eden Bareket, Tony Davis, Vanisha Gould, Samir Langus, Marwan Allam, John Sturino, and Alex Tremblay, while continuing to develop his own artistic voice through his own releases, including the duo album Life's a Gig with Gould and Add a Zero (2024). Whether accompanying singers, contributing to ambitious ensemble projects, or leading his own groups, McCarthy has developed a distinctive musical voice rooted in lyricism and a deep respect for song.

That sensibility owes much to his longstanding partnership with vocalist Vanisha Gould. Named an "Essential Jazz Discovery" by NPR Music's Nate Chinen in 2024, Gould has become one of the most distinctive rising vocalists on the scene, with McCarthy serving as her closest musical collaborator. Together they have now recorded four projects, including Too Late To Quit and Gould's forthcoming sophomore album, What An Interesting Girl, due later this fall.

"I've logged more hours playing with Vanisha than anyone else on Earth," McCarthy says. "So I set out to write tunes that could hopefully be mistaken for old obscure songbook songs, with the voice of Vanisha in my mind as I wrote."

That same sense of familiarity extends throughout the album. McCarthy's working quintet has performed together regularly since 2023, developing a collective sound that balances careful arrangements with spontaneous interplay. "Our sound has evolved a lot as an ensemble since we recorded Add a Zero in 2024," McCarthy reflects.

Too Late To Quit opens with "Curtain Call" and "As If," two songs written in the spirit of the Great American Songbook while remaining undeniably fresh. "These two songs were inspired by a period of extreme romantic tumult in my life, and you can hear me working through stages of grief in the lyrics," McCarthy says. "My goal was to write melodies and forms that were simple enough that I could fully hear and conceptualize away from the piano. I then wrote lyrics to the sketched-out melodies, channeling my experience into songs that I hoped would sound like forgotten staples of yesteryear."

Another side of McCarthy's musical personality emerges on "Overnight Excess," a feature for the quintet built around angular harmony and restless rhythms beneath a deceptively smooth melody. Bareket, Kuroda, and McCarthy each stretch into high-energy improvisations on what McCarthy describes as "a tribute to the hustler in anyone who chooses to live in New York City."

"When you move to New York, I think everyone's expecting to be an overnight success on some level and just start working with everyone you want to right away," he says. "That ended up not being my experience, and in fact most people will have to play an excess of overnight engagements that will pay the bills just to get through their first few years in the city as a freelancer."

At the center of the album is "Insomnia Waltz," inspired by McCarthy's ongoing work with the Mark Morris Dance Group. "Playing those classes requires a constantly changing repertoire of symmetrical pieces in 3/4," he explains. "I wanted to write something that would work for a combination at barre but also be fun for my band to improvise over."

"Tuck and Draw" reflects another lifelong influence, with McCarthy revisiting the funk and soul sounds that first drew him to the Wurlitzer electric piano. Featuring Kuroda, the piece pays tribute to his earliest years in New York. "When I moved to New York I would drag the massively heavy Korg SV-1 around on the subway because I loved this one specific Wurlitzer sound so much," he recalls. "I wanted to play one song on Wurlitzer in tribute to that 22-year-old kid who was finding his way through the city."

Elsewhere, "MTA (Much Too Angry)" channels the frustrations of daily life underground into an adventurous, dry-humored excursion, while "After All" once again highlights the musical chemistry between McCarthy and Gould. The album concludes with "Sonder," revisiting the opening theme from McCarthy's self-released debut, issued just six months after he first arrived in New York. "One of the melodies I was most proud of from that project was simply called 'Intro,'" he says. "I thought closing this new album with the first track of the first project I released in New York would be the perfect turning of the page."

In many ways, Too Late To Quit serves as both a reflection and a beginning. It captures the lessons of McCarthy's first decade in New York while looking toward whatever comes next, bringing together the many musical worlds he has inhabited. Grounded in the language of the Great American Songbook but unmistakably contemporary, the album finds McCarthy writing the kind of songs he has spent a lifetime studying, performed by the musicians who have become his closest artistic community over the past ten years.

Still Time To Quit
Release Date: April 2, 2020
Label: Ropeadope

Chris McCarthy, noted as “one of the most impressive and original pianists on the New York jazz scene” by Hot House Jazz Magazine, is thrilled to announce the release of his Ropeadope debut, Still Time To Quit.

With this album, McCarthy steps into the foreground as a singular composer and bandleader after establishing himself as a first-call sideman for many. McCarthy’s band of world class improvisers includes trumpeter Takuya Kuroda, saxophonist Michael Blake, bassist Sam Minaie and drummer Jongkuk Kim.

An in-demand sideman, Chris McCarthy can be heard on a multitude of recent gems. He backed renowned trumpeter Jason Palmer on his release At Wally’s Vol. 1, Sasha Berliner on her acclaimed new album Azalea, and two releases for Ropeadope: Jared Sims’ The New York Sessions and Akinola Sennon’s Cousoumeh. On stage, McCarthy can be found in duet with vocalist Clotilde Rullaud, playing with acclaimed bandleaders Jerry Bergonzi, Ben Allison, and Dan Blake, and accompanying fast-rising peers Tony Glausi and Vanisha Gould.

While McCarthy is the bandleader and all the compositions are his, Still Time To Quit is a group effort by design, featuring the same band on all 8 tracks. Takuya Kuroda is a fast rising star with two critically acclaimed albums to his name: Rising Son and Zigzagger. Michael Blake has been an enduring presence on the New York scene for over 30 years having played with everyone from Charlie Hunter to Oliver Lake. “Their strong character on every solo and almost telepathic communication with each other is a highlight of the record to me” said McCarthy. The rhythm section is rounded out by salward bassist Sam Minaie (Tigran Hamasyan, Melody Gardot) and McCarthy’s long-time associate Jongkuk (JK) Kim, who is appearing on new releases left and right. According to McCarthy, “they are a uniquely groovy yet free-spirited rhythm section, always bringing the funk in tandem with adventure.” The band’s natural chemistry is readily apparent after just one listen.

Album highlights include "Ready Steady Here You Go" which feature incredibly high energy solos from Kuroda and Blake and an infectious go-go funk groove; "Valedictorian Driver," which is a reimagining of rapper Noname’s “Diddy Bop”; and “That’s All You Get”, a whirlwind of off-axis uptempo swing (and indeed, the only swing tune you get).

The tongue in cheek album title comes from the idea that no matter what level of success one reaches as a musician, there will always be people saying a sustainable career in music is impossible. To McCarthy, there's always "still time to quit" music, but there's also time to fulfill one's creative and professional dreams and goals. With this shining debut for Ropeadope, McCarthy’s is beginning to achieve those goals.

Sonder
Release Date: May 12, 2017
Label: Red Piano Records

Sonder is a product of something truly special. The record was premiered on the evening of March 31st, 2016 at McCarthy’s senior recital, where the honed band of Carrie Furniss on voice, JK Kim on drums, Simon Willson on bass and guitarist Max Light debuted McCarthy’s Sonder suite. Every inch of the Keller Room at The New England Conservatory was filled with attentive listeners while McCarthy and the band played a continuous 45-minute set weaving through an amazing array of textures and feels. The entire audience sat in awe as song after song aimed for the gut and heartstrings, leaving many audience members in tears. Audience member Justin Salisbury said:

“That was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.”

Instead of simply playing a “killing set with bad ass jazz musicians”, as McCarthy so easily could have done, he decided to aim “straight for the heart” and give his audience the gift of accessible, yet daring and provocative improvised pop music.

In the spirit of many great jazz records, the album Sonder was recorded completely live in one take. Listening to the record, it is hard to believe that the band could nail such intricate music on their very first pass, but that is indeed how it was made. No overdubs, no second takes, just pure live music. The album was recorded at WGBH Fraser Performance Studio in Boston by world class engineer Robin Moore, assisted by James Willetts. Upon listening to Sonder for the first time, one can’t help but recognize the tremendous talent and potential of this band.

From 2013-2016, it was hard to hear a show on the Boston jazz scene that didn’t include Chris McCarthy. You could find him on Fridays and Saturdays at the famed Wally’s Cafe, playing with Jason Palmer and Noah Preminger or you could find him at The Lily Pad on Monday nights, playing with jazz giants like Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Phil Grenadier, John Lockwood and Bob Guillotti. When jazz greats like Jeff Ballard, Doug Weiss, and Dave Liebman came to Boston, McCarthy would end up on gigs with them. This real life training with some of the greatest jazz musicians alive coupled with McCarthy’s studies at New England Conservatory elevated his musicianship to an astoundingly high level.

When confronted with the task of putting together the music for his senior recital, McCarthy could have easily assembled a who’s who of the Boston jazz scene and played an excellent set with little to no rehearsal. But instead, he chose to craft an intimate, emotional, 45 minute suite out of some of the music that had been closest to his heart the past four years. These included songs like “The Empty,” a reading of American culture’s addiction to smartphones, inspired by comedy great Louis CK, “Desaparecere” a hauntingly beautiful post rock lullaby of sorts by the indie champions Deerhoof, “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is” which McCarthy discovered through the second episode of the popular show Black Mirror, and “Count On Me,” the instant classic anthemic punk song by Birthing Hips front woman Carrie Furniss.

But McCarthy had picked out a band long before he settled on the set list. On drums is the South Korean phenomenon JK Kim, one of McCarthy’s best friends and closest musical allies through their playing in Jason Palmer’s band, Simon Moullier’s Group, and more recently their duo project, JKXCM. 2017 began with a tour around the Seattle area with JKXCM, using political speeches, poetry, hip hop acapellas and spoken word to confront the Trump era head on with activism through words and brutally intense music, hinting at electronica, hip-hop, and funk, sometimes all within the same 3 minute track. A fundamental part of Sonder’s sound is the unique connection between JK and CM.

On bass is one of the hardest working musicians in Boston, Simon Willson, whose unbeatable feel and world class ears made him McCarthy’s favorite bassist to work with in Boston. Simon and Chris studied with world famous jazz drummer Billy Hart for a year prior to this recital, honing their sound as a trio every two weeks in lessons. This development of shared repertoire led to a keen understanding of each other’s playing, which was further developed by playing regularly with Jason Palmer’s band.

On guitar is Max Light. When McCarthy put on a recital at NEC in November of his freshman year, Max was playing. When McCarthy formed the band Beau D’Ver to be the NEC 2015 Jazz Honors Ensemble, Max was playing. When McCarthy joined Jason Palmer’s band at Wally’s, Max joined at the same time. Considering how rare it is for chordal instrumentalists to complement each other so well, it seemed only right that Max be the guitarist on this project, rich with rock and punk textures but still very much a jazz record in spirit.

Throughout McCarthy’s meteoric rise in the Boston jazz scene there was one constant; his Korg SV-1 keyboard. In his own words, “The SV-1 is the best stage keyboard around today, hands down. The variety of rhodes sounds on it is the best I’ve ever heard.” So on this entire record, McCarthy plays no piano, though he went to NEC for piano performance. He instead uses the lush dark tone of the Korg SV-1 Rhodes and Wurlitzer to bring out the darkness and beauty in a defining 45 minutes of music.

With a new record of all original material already in the works, Chris McCarthy and Sonder are clearly here to stay.

PAUL RAUCH
ALL ABOUT JAZZ
With this release, McCarthy takes a giant step forward artistically, stepping out of the gigantic, ominous shadow of the New York scene for a time. While the demonetization of the recording industry often sees artists viewing an album as a business card, or a documentation of an artist's work in a period of time, this album seems more akin to albums made during the vinyl era of the 50's and 60's. It was a time when an album wasn't just a "release," but an artistic statement. Still Time to Quit leaves one with the hope that the artist has the vision to reconvene this quintet and see where it goes-for art's sake. Read the full feature here.