Jacob Garchik Blending Ye Olde with the New

By Veronica Johnson I Dec. 23, 2025

“When I was listening to these old jazz records from the ’50s and ’60s, I was really transported to another time and place in this sort of magical way,” says Jacob Garchik.
(Photo: Peter Gannushkin)

The quirky, thematic concept for trombonist Jacob Garchik’s album series Ye Olde (the first installment was released in 2015) came about one day while he was strolling down his Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn and noticed the medieval architecture of knights and castles embedded within the stonework.

“I mean, I’ve been in New York now for over 30 years, and I never saw this stuff before. I was just oblivious to it,” says Garchik from his home in Brooklyn. “And then once I started noticing it, I learned that in the 1930s, they really played up this whole medieval stuff. These neighborhoods were built at that time, and the developers were using all that stuff over and over again and in other cities, too.”

Little did Garchik know the medieval Flatbush setting he became fixated with would become the impetus for his fifth record. The first album in the series is an epic tale, which took place 1,000 years ago and imagines “Ye Olde” as a band of heroes, traversing Brooklyn, taking part in surreal adventures in a landscape of ruined castles/apartment buildings.

The band’s goal is “to defeat the evil plan of architect Mortise Mansard the IVth, whose castles dotted the landscape from South to North,” as described on Garchick’s website.

Whereas the first project was about a “fantastical Brooklyn,” his new recording Ye Olde 2: At The End Of Time, ventures into space and time, loosely narrating a voyage that ends in a cosmic battle with doppelgängers. The point, he insists, isn’t the storyline itself but the playful world it opens for the music.

“The music is supposed to just transport people to a fantastical universe of sound,” he explains.

Putting Garchik’s music into context is mind-boggling because he’s heavily influenced by sci-fi, punk rock, orchestral music and jazz, and he immersed himself in sci-jazz pioneers Sun Ra, Chick Corea and Lenny White. Listeners will immediately hear their influence on Garchik’s music and the grit and edge that have become his hallmark. On recordings, he strives to enforce the rawness of the trombone.

“I studied in conservatories and played in an orchestra, but I like music that has an edge, whatever that means,” he says. “My favorite jazz performers are the ones where you really hear the humanity. I mean, Miles Davis is punk rock, especially that 1970s Miles. It’s like you’re in New York City in the ’70s when you’re listening to those records. You’re feeling what it was like to walk down the streets of East Village. That’s how I hear it, and I really love that.”

Garchik’s musical eccentricity has boded well with his work as a sideman for jazz stars Miguel Zenón, Mary Halvorson, Ethan Iverson and Lee Konitz.

He’s been an in-demand trombonist since moving to New York in 1994 to attend the Manhattan School of Music. There, he quickly engaged in the city’s jazz scene and discovered that his instrument opened doors to an unusually wide range of gigs — from salsa and merengue to Jewish weddings and avant-garde big bands. He thrived on the variety, drawing from each style to enrich his own artistry.

In his hometown of San Francisco, Garchik says the jazz scene was small compared to New York’s. But the music education scene was vast. He attended Stanford Jazz Camp and Santa Cruz Jazz Camp, and was part of the All-City Big Band, the All-State Big Band and the All-American Big Band. He was drawn to both classical music and jazz as a kid, but jazz had the biggest impact.

“I was talking about science fiction and how it transports me. It’s escapism. There’s an element of that in jazz. When I was listening to these old jazz records from the ’50s and ’60s, I was really transported to another time and place in this sort of magical way. It’s almost like you’re entering this parallel universe when you put on Art Blakey’s version of ‘A Night In Tunisia’ or something like that.”

Garchik has also built an impressive portfolio as a composer and arranger, notably through his decades-long collaboration with the Kronos Quartet, a string ensemble from San Francisco. He has contributed over 100 arrangements and original compositions, including the film score The Green Fog and a project about Pete Seeger.

Working for strings, he says, challenged him to adapt his jazz instincts to a centuries-old classical tradition, and positioned him as a bridge between improvisation and written composition.

As a composer and lead trombonist for other leaders’ ensembles, Garchik finds it difficult to carve out time to compose and record his own records. Ten years have passed since the release of Ye Olde and the new sequel.

“I wish I could finish projects sooner,” he says. “It takes me a long time, but I love the process and it’s so satisfying.”

Garchik held an album release party for the new record at Nublu on the Lower East Side in August.

He is preparing for stateside and European tours with guitarist Mary Halvorson and performances at the Village Vanguard with Ethan Iverson in October.

Although sometimes sideman jobs delay his personal projects, he’s fueled by both sides of his career, believing each feeds the other.

As for his conceptual albums, Garchik says sequels are always brewing. The medieval sculptures he’s drawn to in Brooklyn, he believes, have multiple narratives, and he’s anxious to continue exploring ways to infuse them into his music.

“The conceptual records lend [themselves] to more installments,” he says, comparing his work to sci-fi franchises that thrive on continual storylines. DB