Guitarist Rich Goldstein to Release New Soul-Jazz Album “Into the Blue” on Sept. 27th, 2024
Veteran jazz guitarist and educator Rich Goldstein, a longtime faculty member at The Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, channels some of his guitar heroes and main influences on Into the Blue. From Wes Montgomery and George Benson to Pat Martino, Joe Diorio and Randy Johnston, Goldstein’s playing on his debut release for the Truth Revolution label is marked by a seasoned touch, a penchant for swinging and obvious reverence for the history of jazz guitar.
Joined by organist Yahn Frankel, vibraphonist Behn Gillece and drummer Ben Bilello, Goldstein delivers in old school fashion on a program of well-known standards by Thelonious Monk, Django Reinhardt, Horace Silver, Stevie Wonder and the Beatles, along with two numbers popularized by Dinah Washington and Jack McDuff. These soul jazz takes are blues-tinged and authentically grooving, transporting listeners back to the golden era of Blue Note’s Hammond B3 organ tradition in the ‘50s and ‘60s.
Goldstein’s third recording as a leader, following 2008’s Wes Montgomery tribute, Comin’ from Montgomery, and 2011’s Effervescent with pianist Andy LaVerne, bassist Steve LaSpina, saxophonist Billy Drewes and drummer Anthony Pinciotti, finds the guitarist and his crew nimbly shifting from hard bop burners (his Martino tribute, “Altered State”) to slow blues (“Our Miss Brooks,” written by Harold Vick for Jack McDuff’s group) to ballads (Dave Pike’s “Not a Tear,” Django Reinhardt’s “Nuages”) to bossa nova (a mellow Brazilian take on Stevie Wonder’s “You and I”), each imbued with requisite soul. “I love the organ groups going back to Wes Montgomery’s first album with Mel Rhyne, which was heavily influential for me,” said Goldstein. “But I liked all the organ groups from those times — Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Dr. Lonnie Smith. I came up with all that stuff. And I’m a blues player at heart. That’s really where I come from.”
