A pianist, composer & writer, Ethan was a founding member of game-changing collective The Bad Plus.

During his 17-year tenure TBP performed in venues as diverse as the Village Vanguard, Carnegie Hall, and Bonnaroo; collaborated with Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, and the Mark Morris Dance Group; and created a faithful arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and a radical reinvention of Ornette Coleman’s Science Fiction.

Ethan also has been part of the critically-acclaimed Billy Hart quartet for well over a decade and occasionally performs with elder statesmen like Albert “Tootie” Heath or Ron Carter.

For over 15 years his website Do the Math has been a repository of musician-to-musician interviews and analysis.
Surely one reason Time Out New York selected him as one of 25 essential New York jazz icons:
“Perhaps NYC’s most thoughtful and passionate student of jazz tradition—the most admirable sort of artist-scholar.”

Ethan records for ECM Records: in duo with Mark Turner, with the Billy Hart Quartet as well as his own date featuring Tom Harrell.

As an educator, he has been on the faculty of New England Conservatory since 2016.