Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
While a few organists have recorded with a big band (including Jimmy Smith with Oliver Nelson), Radam Schwartz remembers the Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes collaboration with the Gerald Wilson Orchestra on his new CD, “Message from Groove and GW.” Born and raised in New York City, Radam has worked with the likes of Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, Russell Malone, David ‘Fathead’ Newman and Cecil Brooks III, appearing on over 40 recordings as a sideman, as well as nine discs of his own. Joined by the Abel Mireles Jazz Exchange Orchestra, Radam has become the first organist to play all the bass lines through an entire big band album. In addition, he contributed three originals and five of the ten arrangements to the new project.
“Harlem Stories: The Music of Thelonious Monk” is the latest from saxophonist Teodross Avery. His ninth release as a leader is less a tribute to Monk than a deep study of the music. “I wanted to make sure that we brought the feeling and the spirit of Harlem into the music,” Avery explains. “Harlem has always been the center of Black American urban culture since the 1920s and I just wanted to capture that feeling in the music.” He does that with two separate bands on the disc, including pianists Anthony Wonsey and D.D. Jackson and drummers Willie Jones III and Marvin ‘Bugalu’ Smith. Corcoran Holt is bassist for both bands.
Also this week, the South Florida Jazz Orchestra celebrates its 15th anniversary with “Cheap Thrills: the Music of Rick Margitza,” featuring the compositions, arrangements and the playing of the saxophonist;
New York trombonist Matt Haviland features an all-star lineup on “Something to Say,” including saxophonist Vincent Herring, pianist David Kikoski, bassist Ugonna Okegwa, and drummer Johnathan Blake;
and guitarist Will Bernard offers up his ninth release as a leader, “Freelance Subversives.”