Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
For three decades Mike LeDonne has been an exceptional avatar of the Hammond B3 organ. Forged by his impressive jazz apprenticeship, with the likes of Benny Golson, Milt Jackson and George Coleman, LeDonne comes from a long and distinguished line of masters of that instrument. And for eighteen years, he’s led the Groover Quartet, his formidable foursome consisting of tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Joe Farnsworth. The group’s swinging sympatico is evident on LeDonne’s new CD, “From the Heart,” comprised of bluesy, gospelized, R&B and funkified selections from the fifties to the nineties, with a few originals by the leader.
Jared Gold is one of the most harmonically creative and grooving of the new generation of organists working today. He is a big part of the New York scene and has worked with many of the greats including Oliver Lake and John Abercrombie. He has recorded eight CDs as a leader, is a sideman on many more and recently won “Top Rising Star Organist” in Downbeat magazine. With his latest project, “Reemergence,” Jared returns with new compositions, ideas and arrangements since his last recording three years ago. Joining him are drum legend Billy Hart (who started with Jimmy Smith in the ‘60s), guitarist Dave Stryker and trumpeter Jeremy Pelt.
Also this we
ek, multi-talented musician, producer, arranger and composer Leo Sidran, the son of renowned jazzman Ben Sidran, puts his own spin on the songs of Michael Franks with “Cool School”.
Pianist and composer Harold Lopez Nussa, whom Downbeat describes as “the latest in a line of extraordinary keyboardists to emerge from Cuba,” unveils is new trio CD, “Un Dia Cualquiera”.
Bass clarinetist Todd Marcus is joined by pianist George Colligan, vibraphonist Warren Wolf and guitarist Paul Bollenback “On These Streets (A Baltimore Story).”