Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio: Right Place, Right Time

DLO3 Makes Timeless Soul Jazz for Today

When it comes to jazz organ trios, a certain style and era often comes to mind. Great outfits led by Jimmy Smith, Brother Jack McDuff and Jimmy McGriff enjoyed crossover popularity with their winning soul jazz work in the late 1950sand into the ‘60s. As a genre, jazz moved on to other styles like fusion, electronic and smooth jazz. But the adventurous-meets-accessible, melody-meets-improvisation approach of those classic-era organ trios still holds up to modern-day listening. And in the 21^st century, Seattle-based Delvon Lamarr has been making his own brand of instrumental soul jazz for contemporary audiences.

Lamarr launched the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio (DLO3 for short) in 2015, quickly earning high-profile spots at major jazz festivals. DLO3’s debut album Close But No Cigar came out in 2016; its breakout popularity led to a vinyl release not long thereafter. That album eventually topped Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. 2021’s I Told You So repeated that chart success. The prolific trio released its fifth album (Live in Loveland!) in 2022.

Lamarr’s organ/guitar/drums trio draws inspiration from more that just classic soul jazz groups; Lamarr cites Hendrix, Booker T & the MGgs and others outside the jazz world as influences. In fact, it was a current-day, jazz-adjacent jam band that first inspired him to start his own trio. “I worked for a cable company, driving around in a truck all day,” he recalls. “One day Soulive came on the radio. And I was like, ‘Man, that’s pretty sick.’” Soon thereafter, he took a deep dive into organ trio music from greats like Dr. Lonnie Smith.

Lamarr’s already-established background as a drummer served him well as he took on the daunting role of jazz organist, one that requires playing the bass part using the organ’s pedals. “I had that ability to separate each limb,” he says with a chuckle, “to basically split my brain. And I got the melodic side from having played trumpet.”

DLO3 plays mostly original material, but the trio’s repertoire has room for an occasional reinvention of a well-known classic. Lamarr has fond memories of a gig in the UK shortly after pop star George Michael had passed away. “We decided to play ‘Careless Whisper,’” he recalls. Before he could even get a few bars into the main melodic line, the entire room was singing along. “Not a single silent voice in that whole room,: he says. “It was super powerful.”

The trio’s lineup has changed several times in the decade since forming, with its namesake the sole constant. These days DLO3 has settled into what Lamarr calls a rotating lineup. And while he emphasizes that all of his sidemen have their own unique style, Lamarr believes the nature of the music itself hasn’t changed. “It’s not really about the players,” he says. “It’s about the music. And the music speaks for itself.”

The “supergroup” concept is a celebrated – and somewhat rare – phenomenon in the rock world. But in jazz, ad-hoc aggregations put together to serve a set of musical needs for the here-and-now has a long and illustrious history. The uncertainty, spontaneity and sense of danger that comes with players who don’t have a deep history together can be the source of flying musical sparks. Lamarr says that approach forces him to play differently each time. “And I think I’ve grown as an artist every since we started rotating musicians,” he says. “I play off them, and we don’t do the same things over and over again.”