Wil Blades Organ Quartet

It’s rare to hear a jazz organist who isn’t steeped in the blues. Even some of the better Hammond B-3 players have a hard time stepping outside of Jimmy Smith’s shadow. Wil Blades, a Bay Area resident (by way of Chicago), does indeed have blues chops—his credits include a stint with bluesman John Lee Hooker—but his own music is far more lyrical, with postbop elements seldom heard from most organ players in that genre.

Although he can get greasy when he wants, there are more ingredients in his stew. “Mr. Lewis,” from his 2007 solo debut, Sketchy, finds Blades integrating a bossa-nova rhythm, with the horns carrying the main melody as Blades softly chords in the background. Although the album’s undeniably an organ player’s session, Blades yields the spotlight to other soloists. Luminaries pitch in, including intensely funky New Orleans drummer Idris Muhammad (who was originally slated to play this show but canceled).

The 30-year-old Blades claims he never really learned his instrument until jamming at a happy-hour gig at Hooker’s Boom Boom Room in San Francisco, while studying jazz at the New College of California. The only other instrumentalists in the band were a guitarist and a drummer. Blades worked overtime, filling in the gaps caused by the lack of a bass. If that trial by fire fueled the precocious keyboardist, Muhammad’s absence won’t faze him. (In a pinch, local percussionist Ted Sirota fills in this weekend, alongside Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker.) His work on Sketchy and in clubs contains no organ showboating, yet the self-taught Blades remains quietly essential.

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