Jazz Organist Sam Yahel Announces New CD, Truth and Beauty

Press release
Source: Michael Bloom Media Relations

Truth and Beauty

Since moving to New York in 1990, Yahel has worked with a string of notable jazz artists including tenor saxophonists Joshua Redman and Eric Alexander, former James Brown sideman and alto sax great Maceo Parker, guitarists Peter Bernstein and Bill Frisell, trumpeters Ryan Kisor and Jim Rotondi, vocalists Norah Jones (on her Grammy-winning Come Away With Me), Lizz Wright, and Madeleine Peyroux.

But it has been as a solo artist in his own right that Yahel has made his most personal statements as both composer and player.

On Truth and Beauty, his fourth outing as a leader, Yahel joins with longtime colleagues Joshua Redman and drummer Brian Blade in rekindling the potent chemistry they generated as Yaya3, a collective group that was an outgrowth of a residency they had at Small's nightclub in New York. "I'm proud of that record. I like Yaya3 (which was released by Warner Bros. in 2003). But at the same time I was always thinking about doing something purely of my own."

And while Yahel had previously released three recordings as a leader -- 1998's Searchin', 1999's Trio and 2000's In The Blink of an Eye -- his current outing is his strongest to date. "This record is not so much about the straight-ahead swinging undercurrent of the rhythm section," says Sam. "These days I feel like jazz has absorbed more world music influences. I hear Brazilian, African and Cuban music elements starting to seep into the mainstream jazz scene and I find myself drawing from those influences more. And for me, the organ is the perfect instrument to implement that kind of thing because you can really get rhythmic and percussive on it, you can evoke images and sounds just as easily as swinging. And although I'm a big fan of straight ahead swinging music and I still play it with pleasure, I think that this record is more of a foray into the other side."

With Truth and Beauty, Yahel once again stakes out his own territory on the Hammond B-3 organ while taking another important stride as a bandleader and composer.

The Sam Yahel Trio (Sam Yahel, B-3 organ; Peter Bernstein, guitar; Greg Hutchinson, drums) will open for Steely Dan on their upcoming U.S. tour, in the following venues/cities:

May 09 - Barbara Mann PAH - Ft. Myers, FL
May 11 - Chastain Park Amphitheatre - Atlanta GA
May 12 - Hard Rock Live Orlando - Orlando FL
May 14 & 15 - Ruth Eckerd Hall - Clearwater FL
May 18 - Chevrolet Theatre - Wallingford, CT
May 21 & 22 - Beacon Theater - New York NY
May 24 & 25 - Tower Theater - Upper Darby PA
May 29 & 30 - Bank of America Pavilion - Boston MA
Jun 04 - Freedom Hill - Detroit MI
Jun 05 - Toledo Zoo Amphitheatre - Toledo OH
Jun 07 - Wolf Trap - Vienna VA
Jun 08 - NTelos Wireless Pavilion - Portsmouth VA
Jun 10, 11 & 13 - Beacon Theater - New York NY

For more information, please visit www.SamYahel.com.