Jazz at One

Jazz at One joins the celebration of Trinity’s decade-long organ project this fall, presenting some of the jazz world’s organ wizards as guest artists and exploring how the organ, historically built into a church’s architecture, came to expand the range — and deepen the soul — of jazz. When in 1935 American engineer Laurens Hammond invented the B3 organ, a smaller, freestanding electric instrument that became especially popular in the Black church, it allowed artists from Fats Waller to Duke Ellington to bring the distinctive gospel-rooted sound from sacred spaces to soul-infused clubs, where it quickly redefined expression and groove. Join today’s jazz talents as they show off the B3’s captivating sound in the sacred space for which it was originally intended.

Trinity presents Jazz at One in collaboration with JAZZ HOUSE KiDS, to showcase some of the most prolific and influential artists in music history.

September 29, 1pm – 2pm

Joy Brown

The daughter of a Pentecostal preacher, Joy Brown grew up singing gospel in her father’s Newark, New Jersey, church. But it wasn’t until after she studied engineering, then classical music, that Brown found her true passion: jazz singing, which she describes as combining the technicality of classical with the improvisation and depth of gospel. Since moving to New York City in 2016, Brown has regularly performed in such venues as Dizzy’s Club, Smalls Jazz Club, The Django, and Mezzrow; appeared at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Carnegie Hall; and was featured as a soloist in one of Duke Ellington's “Sacred Music” concerts. To kick off this season-long ode to jazz organ, Brown will be accompanied by Trinity’s new Hammond B3.

October 6, 1pm – 2pm

Mike King Trio

The well-known Hammond B3 organ artist Mike King returns to his church roots in St. Paul’s Chapel. King started off playing drums at services in Chicago when he was just four years old, before picking up piano by ear and playing in church by age 14. Later, he studied at the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory of Music, was selected to attend the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and the Ravinia Jazz Scholars Program on merit scholarships, and performed with the likes of Bobby Watson, Kevin Eubanks, David Liebman, Gary Bartz, Billy Hart, and Antonio Hart. Currently, King tours internationally with his own trio.

October 13, 1pm – 2pm

Mike LeDonne Groover Quartet and Gospel Choir

Mike LeDonne, who grew up playing the Hammond B3 in his parents’ Connecticut music store, will be the first performer to marry a gospel choir with a jazz organ inside St. Paul’s Chapel. The musician’s musician — the legendary Oscar Peterson chose Mike as one of his favorite contemporary pianists — began booking gigs when he was 10, eventually playing with such icons as Benny Goodman and Sonny Rollins. By 2000, he’d formed his own organ band, The Groover Quartet, and by the time its 2003 CD had skyrocketed to No. 1, the quartet had secured a now legendary — and still going — Tuesday night gig at New York City’s Smoke Jazz Club. In 2023, LeDonne, who spent four years on staff at The Juilliard School of Music and is a founder of the Jazz for Teens program at New Jersey’s Performing Arts Center, added a gospel choir to the mix on his latest CD, Wonderful!

October 20, 1pm – 2pm

Radam Schwartz: 2 Sides of the Organ

Radam Schwartz has earned well-deserved recognition as a Hammond B3 master over a 35-year career. His recording Organized is considered one of the essential jazz organ albums of all time, while his most recent CD, 2 Sides of the Organ Combo, features two different takes on his classic sound: the Smooth Side and the Groove Side. Schwartz, who has a regular gig at Harlem’s Showmans — one of the last of the organ clubs — is a longtime educator, teaching at such beloved jazz programs as JAZZ HOUSE KiDS. He was also artist-in-residence at Middlesex County Arts High School and music director at the Jazz Institute of New Jersey for close to 20 years.

October 27, 1pm – 2pm

Matthew Whitaker Organ Trio

Jazz pianist Matthew Whitaker began making music at age three after his grandfather gave him a keyboard; he grew up to perform at the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center. Also a drummer and composer, Whitaker, who was born with blindness, has collaborated with the multi-talented Jon Batiste and famed bassist Christian McBride, both winners of multiple Grammys. He has appeared on Showtime at the Apollo, the Today show, Ellen, and 60 Minutes; starred, produced, and scored the Emmy-nominated documentary About Tomorrow; and scored the film Starkeisha, now streaming on Hulu. Whitaker’s current CD, On Their Shoulders: An Organ Tribute — an homage to his own Hammond heroes — has been nominated for Outstanding Jazz Album by the NAACP Image Awards.

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Host or Publisher Trinity Church Wall Street