Jazz & Blues Showcase: Radam Schwartz Quartet

Following our wildly successful Tribute to Larry McKenna earlier this month, we are continuing on Sunday afternoon, April 28th, featuring jazz organist RADAM SCHWARTZ. His quartet includes noted saxophonist GENE GHEE, rising star guitarist ILAN EISENWEIG & in-demand drummer BYRON LANDHAM.

For more than four-decades musician Radam Schwartz has dedicated his career to jazz as a performer & educator. Drawn to music at an early age, he learned both piano & saxophone. He became proficient at the piano, though by high school & in college, including Boston’s Berklee College of Music, his desire to be a jazz organist grew. After graduating in 1975, the desire & hard work to become a jazz organist paid off for him in the late 1970s & continues today. His performing credits include working with many jazz artists. Notable among them are vocalists Al Hibbler & Arthur Prysock, saxophonists David “Fathead” Newman, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis & “Red” Prysock, Bassist Ron Carter & guitarist Russell Malone. His resume also shows extensive recordings as a sideman & eight more as a leader.

Equally important to Schwartz is educating people about music, the history of jazz & mentoring young people with interest. Though New York born, he’s resided in New Jersey since the 1970s & is hugely supportive of New Jersey’s jazz scene. He believes it deserves the same importance that’s attached to jazz in Philly & New York & has advanced that idea by teaching in a variety of New Jersey settings. Included are Rutgers University, the Jazz Institute of NJ, as music director, the Middlesex County Arts High School, as Artist-in-Residence, Red Bank’s “Jazz Arts Academy” & “Jazz House Kids” in Montclair.