![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/parlor_greens_emeralds.jpg\")
Soul jazz enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s and \u201860s. Often led by veterans of the hard bop movement, soul jazz offered a tuneful, less avant-garde and more accessible approach to jazz. Drawing from blues and gospel, the form succeeded in bringing many new listeners into the jazz world. Artists of great stature like Julian \u201cCannonball\u201d Adderley, Lou Donaldson and saxophonist Stanley Turrentine made critical and commercial inroads in the style.<\/p>\n
A major force within the soul jazz idiom was the organ trio. Often foregoing upright or acoustic bass, organ trios relied on the keyboardists\u2019 foot pedal work for the musical bottom-end. Organ trio stars included Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff; ace guitarists like Wes Montgomery and Grant Green worked creatively in that configuration.<\/p>\n
Like all trends, the era of soul jazz and organ trios peaked and then ebbed. But the timelessness of the approach \u2013 and the creative opportunities that lay within it \u2013 remain to this day. Today acts like the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio (DLO3) and the Goldings\/Bernstein\/Stewart Organ Trio underscore the durability of this classic jazz format.<\/p>\n
The lasting viability of the organ trio setup is proven yet again by the emergence of a new instrumental group. Three players with esteemed pedigrees have come together as Parlor Greens. Drummer Tim Carman is a former member of modern Chicago blues act GA-20. Guitarist Jimmy James comes from DLO3, and organist Adam Scone\u2019s past work includes time in The Sugarman 3. Emeralds<\/i> is the trio\u2019s debut long-player.<\/p>\n
The deeply funky approach this trio brings to its original material is a delight. The interplay between Carman, James and Scone borders on the subconscious. Whether trading in a stop-start bluesy number like \u201cRed Dog\u201d or digging deep into the pocket of the slow jam \u201cDrop Top,\u201d the trio excels. James\u2019 soulful guitar licks are melodic in the extreme; he never overplays or shows off, and his taste is equaled by his skills and expressiveness. Scone takes a similar approach to his B3, in turns serving up fleet-fingered, simmering lead lines and laying back to provide a rock-solid backdrop for James\u2019 solos. And while Carman\u2019s time in GA-20 called upon him to deliver a heavy beat, in the context of Parlor Greens he displays impressive versatility, adorning tracks with subtlety or power as they require.<\/p>\n
Sometimes Parlor Greens cooks up a hypnotic groove like \u201cParlor Change,\u201d in which James and Carman lean heavily into a cyclical figure, laying the groundwork for Scone\u2019s flights of funktastic fancy. Other times the trio evokes warm memories of Memphis-based legends Booker T & the MGs, as on the album\u2019s title track. And while ten of Emeralds\u2019 cuts are trio originals, the band shows its interpretive skill with a winning soul jazz take on Dolly Parton\u2019s classic \u201cJolene.\u201d Holding onto the original version’s memorable melodic line, the Trio\u2019s take wordlessly communicates the passion and pathos of Parton\u2019s song. Simply put, start to finish on Emeralds<\/i>, Parlor Greens demonstrates that soul jazz is as vital today as it has ever been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Soul jazz enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s and \u201860s. Often led by veterans of the hard bop movement, soul jazz offered a tuneful, less avant-garde and more accessible approach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,49,65,69],"tags":[5921],"class_list":["post-31208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jazz","category-new-release","category-review","category-soul","tag-parlor-greens","cat-42-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31210,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31208\/revisions\/31210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}