Truth And Beauty

On his fourth and best album, Truth and Beauty (Origin), organist Sam Yahel continues to operate outside the heavy blues and gospel style associated with Hammond B-3 maestros like Jimmy McGriff, Jack McDuff, and Baby Face Willette. He's more like Larry Young, eschewing greasy, crowd-pleasing chord swells for dynamic, pianistic single-note lines. For the record he enlisted drummer Brian Blade, whose splintery accents add an extra level of complexity to the grooves, and saxophonist Joshua Redman, who finds room for low-down classic-funk growls in the midst of thoroughly modern-sounding arrangements. But on his current tour, opening for Steely Dan, Yahel will be backed by a standard organ-trio line-up, with guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Greg Hutchinson.