Jacques Schwarz-Bart

Saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart pursues an ambitious path that blends post-bop jazz with the percussive gwo ka rhythms of his native Guadeloupe and elements of R&B. As an original member of Roy Hargrove's RH Factor, he has shared stages and recordings with numerous artists such as D'Angelo, Danilo Perez, Chucho Valdes, and Meshell Ndegeocello. His own releases trace a versatile course: the 2007 album Soné Ka La moves through Afro-Caribbean and neo-soul textures, the 2014 album Jazz Racine Haiti incorporates Vodou traditions, and the 2018 album Hazzan draws on Jewish liturgical music. In 2020 he revisited his hybrid gwo ka jazz approach on Soné Ka La 2: Odyssey.

Born in 1962 in Les Abymes, Guadeloupe, Schwarz-Bart grew up amid literary surroundings as the son of award-winning writers Black Guadeloupean novelist Simone Schwarz-Bart and French-Jewish author André Schwarz-Bart. During childhood he studied the gwo ka drum under percussion master Anzala and absorbed the French Antillean biguine style; by age six he had developed a strong interest in jazz and began teaching himself guitar through repeated listening to records. Though music remained central, he first pursued politics, earning a degree from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) and briefly serving in the French Senate, where he took up the tenor saxophone. At age 27 he resigned to enroll at Boston's Berklee School of Music, launching an active performing career that included work with globally oriented figures such as Roy Hargrove, D'Angelo, Danilo Perez, Chucho Valdes, and Ari Hoenig.

After leaving Hargrove's band, Schwarz-Bart assembled his own large ensemble that merged jazz, hip-hop, and R&B with Guadeloupean gwo ka rhythms. The group issued two well-received Universal albums, Soné Ka La in 2007 and Abyss in 2008. He followed with the 2010 release Rise Above, which again fused Caribbean jazz and neo-soul and included vocals from his wife, former Brooklyn Funk Essentials singer Stephanie McKay. The 2012 album The Art of Dreaming showcased his longstanding quartet featuring pianist Baptiste Trotignon, bassist Thomas Bramerie, and drummer Hans van Oosterhout.

The 2014 album Jazz Racine Haiti integrated contemporary jazz with Haitian traditions, notably musique rasin and ritualistic Vodou music, and enlisted Vodou priests, singer Errol Josué, and percussionist Gaston Bonga along with trumpeter Etienne Charles, drummer Obed Calvaire, bassist Luques Curtis, and keyboardist Milan Milanovic. Another quartet project, Hazzan, appeared in 2018 and presented Schwarz-Bart's fresh interpretations of Jewish liturgical chants. In 2020 he returned to his gwo ka and Caribbean-rooted sound on Soné Ka La 2: Odyssey, which featured singer Malika Tirolien together with pianist Grégory Privat, bassist Reggie Washington, drummer Arnaud Dolmen, and percussionist Sonny Troupé.