Doug MacDonald’s Reorganized Quartet at Feinstein's At Vitello's

Musicians:
Doug MacDonald guitar
Clarence Webb tenor
Bobby Pierce organ
Harold Acey drums

A journeyman in the best sense of the word, Los Angeles-based jazz guitarist Doug MacDonald exhibits an easy, old school, blues-tinged sense of swing that recalls such straight ahead influences as Kenny Burrell and Barney Kessel. His recent outings as a leader have showcased his remarkable versatility, ranging from 2006’s classy quartet session Gentle Rain (featuring the late pianist Ross Tompkins) to 2009’s ambitious orchestral project Fourth Stream (for 13-piece brass and woodwind ensemble augmented with strings on all but two tracks) and 2011’s stripped-down trio recording It’s a Blue World. This time out, MacDonald returns to the organ group setting that he explored on 1997’s Organ-izing (which featured big-toned tenor great Plas Johnson and organist Art Hillery). And the results are scintillating....

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Musicians:
Doug MacDonald guitar
Clarence Webb tenor
Bobby Pierce organ
Harold Acey drums

A journeyman in the best sense of the word, Los Angeles-based jazz guitarist Doug MacDonald exhibits an easy, old school, blues-tinged sense of swing that recalls such straight ahead influences as Kenny Burrell and Barney Kessel. His recent outings as a leader have showcased his remarkable versatility, ranging from 2006’s classy quartet session Gentle Rain (featuring the late pianist Ross Tompkins) to 2009’s ambitious orchestral project Fourth Stream (for 13-piece brass and woodwind ensemble augmented with strings on all but two tracks) and 2011’s stripped-down trio recording It’s a Blue World. This time out, MacDonald returns to the organ group setting that he explored on 1997’s Organ-izing (which featured big-toned tenor great Plas Johnson and organist Art Hillery). And the results are scintillating.

> Born in Philadelphia and raised in Honolulu, where he began his long journey as a working musician, MacDonald has been on the Los Angeles scene for nearly 30 years. An accomplished player-composer-arranger, he plays with a warm tone and a deliberate linear approach and shines on relaxed grooves that allow him to testify with authority. But he also gleefully embraces up-tempo romps, where he readily reveals his bop roots and infinite capacity to burn. He covers all those bases on Reorganized. On this potent outing, MacDonald is surrounded by a pair of like-minded old school burners on the LA scene in tenor saxophonist Clarence Webb and 70-year-old Hammond B-3 master and Columbus, Ohio native Bobby Pierce (who recorded with a young Pat Martino in his band on a couple of Cobblestone and Muse sessions from the early 1970s). Tenor saxophonist Rodger Neumann and drummer Harold Acey round out the personnel on MacDonald’s 11th as a leader.

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