Jeff Goldblum has spoken to NME about his “second life” as a jazz musician, new album 'Night Blooms' and working with “those wonderful, wonderful ladies from Wicked” Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
The screen icon and Jurassic Park star released 'Night Blooms' last week (Friday June 5), as the companion record to his third album from 2025, 'Still Blooming'. The latest release is with his longtime band The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, and features new collaborations with Wicked co-star Erivo, along with the likes of Charlie Puth, Dodie and Melody Gardot.
Erivo playfully duets with Goldblum on 'If I Only Had A Brain', having sung on the Vera Lynn classic 'We'll Meet Again' on 'Still Blooming', where co-star Ariana Granda sang on the old standard 'I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)'.
NME met Goldblum at The Savoy Hotel in West London, where he blind-ranked Beatles bangers (see video below) and opened up about working with “those wonderful, wonderful ladies from Wicked” and how their on-screen chemistry only bloomed when they sat behind a piano.
“While we were on the set, we got to singing and they said, 'Yes, we want to be on the album',” Goldblum told NME working with the pair as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. “But before we shot a single frame of film, we got together and had this lovely Thanksgiving dinner with the wonderful Jon M. Chu [director]his family and some of the crew. There was a piano there, I sat down and started playing. They love music and they're so masterfully gifted and accomplished that I was floating on air singing with them.
“Then on set, I was trying to do my job but couldn't help but singing every song I knew in between takes. They knew every jazz standard and every Broadway show tune. We were singing and talking about what we liked, but I didn't have any agenda about them playing with me.”
He added: “I started to sing this one song 'I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)', and Ariana said, 'How are you singing that song? My grandfather used to sing that to me all the time'. I told them about our band and she said she'd love to record it. With Cynthia too, we found this song 'We'll Meet Again' by Vera Lynn, and that's how it happened.”
Speaking to NME back in 2018 around the time of his debut LP 'The Capitol Studios Sessions', the actor and musician explained how he “never thought of making an album, really. It's all taken me by surprise.”
Now aged 73, the meme-magnet star feels like he's truly in the swing of his “second life” in jazz, but music has always been a close companion.
“From the start, I had my heart set on acting, careerwise,” he shared. “I loved the piano and even snuck my way into a couple of cocktail lounges in Pittsburgh when I was 15 and played a gig or two because I'd fallen in love with jazz. Then acting occurred, thrillingly, but through the decades I always kept a piano around – even in my movies. Like in The FlyI convinced David Cronenberg to let me play a bit, or Earth Girls Are Easy with Julien Temple.”
He went on: “Then I did [The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension] in 1984. Peter Weller likes jazz and likes the horn, so we got together at each other's houses to play and he had this friend called Miles Davis. He told us to get a regular gig with real musicians so we could get good and have fun. That's how it started about 30 years ago. I was still never aspiring to a music career of any kind, I just kept loving jazz and the piano.”
Naming his band The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra after a family friend in Pittsburgh to play a show at the Hollywood Bowl for The Playboy Jazz Festival, Goldblum and the group soon found themselves performing at London's iconic Ronnie Scott's and Glastonbury. The star was then spotted on The Graham Norton Show playing with Gregory Porter when Head of Decca Records saw his flair and asked him to record an album.
Putting his own spin on jazz classics and movie favourites, Goldblum has played with a wide and eclectic range of collaborators and guest singers from Porter to Miley Cyrus, Fiona Apple, Kelly Clarkson, Laufey and Scarlett Johansson.
“I've had more and more fun and the albums have got better,” he admits. We developed our own way of doing it. I think this is our best one and the bouquet of singers on this one is delightful.”
Asked what he looks for in a collaborator, the Independence Day star replied: “I'm just blessed and thrilled to work with these musicians who are nice people. Showbusiness types can have challenges, but I like hanging around with them.
“They're the best around and seriously devoted to sophisticated music application, knowledge and continued development. I like to learn from them, with them and be exposed to things I've never heard.”
And who would be on his bucket list of dream guest singers?
“I would say Olivia Dean, who I recently gave an award to at the BRIT Awards, I love her,” he replied. “I've sang with Laufey but I'd love to record with her. I'm crazy about Lady Gaga and Jacob Collier. We've got a lot!”
Already planning his next recordings and with some huge UK shows on the horizon, Goldblum shows no signs of slowing down or waning his jazz ambitions – not least because it only enhances his work in TV and film.
“It's a second life and coexistence,” he shared. “It changes my days. I love performing, I play every day and it's another kind of creative life. I want to be at my best.”
Worshiping at the altar of jazz greats as he has with his screen idols, Goldblum confessed to being a “craft obsessive”. “I like Sanford Meisner's training device,” he said of the great acting teacher. “For a couple of decades when I wasn't working, I liked to teach and really get inside what he and the best teachers were after. One of his cornerstones was that if you leave yourself alone and don't try to impose yourself and what you've already figured out to the material, but allow yourself to be present, in the moment and open.
He went on: “That's applicable in jazz and music. You listen to the other people and make yourself available to the audience and with the other musicians. Your uniqueness can come out best if you leave yourself alone, answer, exchange and connect with the people you're making music with and for whom you're making music.”
Having become famous for his idiosyncratic performances in movies like Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Fly and a long run of celebrated Wes Anderson films – as well as still frequently going viral with new generations online – Goldblum's quirks and eccentricities remain at his core. Naturally, they come to the surface in the music too.
“I like characterization and trying to embody characters, while in real life I've never tried to affect any particular personality but I've developed this one, such as it is,” he admitted. “It comes to bear, as you're supposed to allow it to according to my creative shamans and teachers. They told me not to copy anybody, find your own voice, and realize that these characters are made up of something personal in you.
“You can bring something unique to all kinds of parts, and likewise in music when you hear Thelonious Monk or Bill Evans, right away you know it's them. People are still blowing on the same horns and playing on the same keys, but one sensitivity rhythmically and harmonically has a way of imprinting itself on music.”
He added: “Is there something about me that impacts the music? Yes. My voice. You have to act the songs and have your own feel. I bring that to the table. I like developing the human voice and taking ownership of this thing. I like driving around the block, singing and developing. I'm a humble student of all that craft and it keeps getting better.”
'Night Blooms' by Jeff Goldblum and The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra is out now. He's currently in the midst of a UK and European tour, including a headline show at London's Royal Albert Hall on Tuesday June 30. Visit here for tickets and more information.
