A Diverse Organ Trio is Coming to the Cadillac

This is turning out to be a good month for free jazz concerts in the lobby of the Cadillac Hotel. The next offering in the Concerts at the Cadillac series will take place in a little over a week. While the last gig was a solo performance by bluesman Nelson Lunding at the keyboard of the Patricia Walkup Memorial Piano, the next event will give that distinguished instrument a rest. Instead, keyboard work will be on an electronic instrument, which will be used primarily in organ mode. This will be played by Steve McQuarry, who is the leader of the McQuarry Organ Trio.

McQuarry’s background as a keyboardist has taken him into some impressive groups led, respectively, by Dizzy Gillespie, Louie Bellson, Clare Fischer, and others. He has also played with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. He serves as both composer and arranger for his own trio. HIs other members are guitarist David McFarland and drummer E. Doctor Smith, inventor of the Drummstick, a percussion controller consisting of sixteen finger-pads mounted on a piece of wood. Smith has worked with the likes of Brian Eno, Madonna, and Mickey Hart; and he records his own work on Edgetone Records.

Poster for the McQuarry Organ Trio (courtesy of Concerts at the Cadillac)

Like all Concerts at the Cadillac events, this recital will begin at 12:30 p.m. and will take place on Friday, September 15. The Cadillac Hotel is located at 380 Eddy Street, on the northeast corner of Leavenworth Street. All Concerts at the Cadillac events are presented without charge. The purpose of the series is to provide high-quality music to the residents of the hotel and the Tenderloin District; but all are invited to visit the venue that calls itself “The House of Welcome Since 1907.”