Radam Schwartz has long cared about expanding the jazz audience without watering down his music, utilizing younger players as sidemen, and keeping the legacy of the jazz organ alive. Influenced by
Charles Earland and to a lesser extent
Jack McDuff,
Schwartz sees nothing wrong with turning an occasional pop song into soul-jazz (he begins this CD with
Mariah Carey's "You'll Always Be My Baby"). For
Conspiracy for Positivity: Magic Tales, he leads a very impressive quintet of top young players that is sometimes expanded to a sextet with the addition of baritonist
Anthony Nelson. Altoist Anthony Ware makes a strong impression every time he solos, trumpeter James Gibbs III is an up-and-coming player, and the alternating guitarists (Misha Fatkiev and Ryan Clackner) assist
Schwartz in updating the tradition. While some of the music could be a throwback to the late '60s and early '70s, plenty of subtle surprises are heard along the way and nothing sounds merely old-fashioned or nostalgic. Now that there are few surviving jazz organists left from the 1960s, it is long overdue for
Radam Schwartz to be considered (along with
Joey DeFrancesco and just a few others) as one of jazz's top current organists.
Conspiracy for Positivity: Magic Tales gives listeners an excellent overview of his music. ~ Scott Yanow