Friday, March 7 • 8PM Wenonah Brooks
Tradition is a key word in describing the music of Wenonah Brooks. In recent years modern jazz has taken on a chaotic element, breaking with it’s past and leaving many conservative jazz audiences wanting for the music they had grown to appreciate. Wenonah’s concept has been to bring the performance of jazz back to its fundamentals, namely a song expressed in the standard jazz form. The song may be one composed by Ellington, Basie, Gershwin, Cahn, Paul Simon or Sam Cook, the interpretation will be that of a traditional jazz vocalist.
Wenonah has performed with Stanley Jordan, Shirley Horn, Winard Harper, Richie Cole, Denis DiBlasio, Cecil Brooks III and Houston Person.
April 4 • 8PM Radam Schwartz
“One of the finest organist of our time” — eJazzNews [October 2007]
Radam Schwartz, Hammond B3 Organist and Jazz pianist, has built his reputation over the last 30 years playing with such great musicians as Arthur and Red Prysock, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Al Hibler, David Fathead Newman and Jimmy Ford. He continues to make music history today playing with renowned artists Cecil Brooks III, Russell Malone, and the Spirit of Life Ensemble and many others.
Radam’s prolific career has led to many successful recordings. His recording, Organized (Muse Records 1995), was mentioned in the B3 Bible as one of the essential organ records of all time. He also has been featured on Cecil Brooks III and the CBIII band, For Those Who Love to Groove (Savant Records); Our Day Will Come (Blue Lady Records) with the Tommy Gryce Trio; The Lenny Roberts Quartet, Keepin’ it on the D.L.; Jazz at Crossroads; and Russell Gunn’s Mood Swings (HighNote Records); Jeff Hackworth’s Night Owl and many others, including the debut recording of the Brooklyn Soul Organization (M&N Records), featuring Radam on organ, Brad Leali on alto sax, Grant Langford on tenor sax, and Jerome Jennings on drums. In all, he has been on over 35 recordings.
In 2005, Radam’s recording Conspiracy for Positivity (Blue Ark Records) occupied a spot on the National Jazz Charts for 14 straight weeks, climbing as high as number 15. Magic Tales, the second recording with his group, was released on Arabesque Recordings in 2007,and got as high as #11 on the charts and stayed on the charts also for 14 weeks. In March 2009, Savant Records released Blues Citizens by Radam and an all-star group of Bruce Williams, Bill Saxton, Eric Johnson and Cecil Brooks III. This CD made it to #9 on the national charts. In August of 2010 Arabesque released one of Schwartz’s more daring recordings that combined the jazz vocaleese style with the organ groove entitled Songs For the Soul, and this recording reached #23 on the national charts.