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One of the first jazz records I can recall hearing was a B3 organ piece titled “I Got A Woman” by Jimmy McGriff. I heard it repeatedly for about three years in the mid-1960s --- it was the theme music for a television program I watched --- and I didn’t know then that it was jazz. I just knew that I liked it; and it has informed my musical tastes, in one way or another, in the intervening 40 years. McGriff, along with such stalwarts as Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith, Gene Ludwig and a few others, is acknowledged as a jazz master of the B-3 organ. The B-3 is a powerful instrument, one that shoulders its way to the front of the mix, even unintentionally, so that, in a combo setting, it must be restrained almost as frequently as it is unleashed.

Dan Fogel has several decades worth of journeyman’s work under his belt at the B-3, both as a sideman with such immortals as Nancy Wilson, B.B. King, and Herbie Mann and as the front man of his own aggregations. Fogel on his latest release, 15 WEST, is joined by O’Donel Levy on guitar, Pete Chavez on tenor sax, and Webb Thomas on drums, and who together create one of the more exciting projects of Fogel’s career.

15 West is the answer to people who believe that all jazz sounds alike. Fogel’s strong improvisational runs on Blues After All contrast nicely with his controlled yet inspired solos on Willow Weep For Me, particularly when he is trading off with Chavez. Broadway, which closes 15 West, is an extended romp with solos from all four quartet members, leaving the listener simultaneously impressed and wanting more. Just Friends, the track which opens 15 West, bounces along nicely, yet carries a subtle hint of angst along with it, as would befit the subject matter of the title.

It would be nice if Fogel had a more prolific output, but as 15 West demonstrates what turns he chooses to make in the recording studio are special indeed. 15 West has something for everyone and anyone.