Jacques Schwarz-Bart

Jacques Schwarz-Bart has been at the center of several musical revolutions: neo soul, next to D’angelo and Erykah Badu, to new jazz, as a founding member of Roy Hargrove's RH Factor music group. He outright created two surging new styles: gwoka jazz and voodoo jazz, reuniting jazz music with its Afro-Caribbean and spiritual origins. His impressionistic writing, powerful tone, and wide-ranging language—both lyrical and angular—have fueled a growing presence on the world stage.

Schwarz-Bart is featured on more than 150 CDs and he has toured the world for the past 30 years.

After playing alongside such luminaries as Roy Hargrove, Danilo Pérez, Etienne Charles, Ari Hoenig, Meshell Ndegeocello, and D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, Schwarz-Bart finally decided to follow his own vision as a band leader. He left Hargrove’s band in 2005 and finalized his gwoka jazz project, Sone Ka-La, his first release with Universal.

Schwarz-Bart has released 11 albums, exploring modern jazz, Afro-Caribbean jazz, and neo soul. His latest album, The Harlem Suite, tells his story of blossoming on the New York scene as a Caribbean saxophonist and accomplishing his childhood dreams. The featured line-up includes Terri Lyne Carrington, Marcus Gilmore, Sullivan Fortner, Victor Gould, Grégory Privat, Arnaud Dolmen, and Reggie Washington.

His upcoming album is a duet with pianist Grégory Privat titled 22, as both artists were born on December 22nd, exactly 22 years apart, and have been playing together for 22 years.