Richard Cortez’s timeless, golden baritone voice handles The Great American Songbook with a deep emotional intelligence, an unbridled passion for song, and an activist’s relationship to both his material and his audience.

With his debut jazz album Mood Swings(la reserve) hitting 1 million streams just three months after its release and Amazon Music listing his recording of “You Don’t Know What Love Is” as one of the top jazz recordings of 2024, Richard Cortez has quickly become a leader in the new crop of vocal talents emerging from the contemporary straight ahead Jazz scene.

Known for his ambition and extensive knowledge of The Great American Songbook, Richard Cortez has shared the bandstand with some of the world’s most celebrated and respected jazz musicians — Sullivan Fortner, Orange Julius, Kyle Poole, Yasushi Nakamura, Paul Sikivie, Adam Birnbaum, Paul Gill, Peter Bernstein, Grant Stewart, Alexander Claffy, Joe Farnsworth, Jerry Weldon, Joe Strasser, Nicole Glover, Russell Hall and Emmet Cohen — to name a few.

Recently, Richard released a holiday album, A Cavlan and Cortez Christmas, with viral TikTok vocalist and label mate June Cavlan who’s millions of views on the popular platform generated quite a buzz around the pairs duo project this holiday season.

Richard just wrapped a national tour promoting Mood Swings that included venues like Cafe Vivace, The Black Cat and Catalina Club where he headlined his own show as well as opened for 96 year old jazz legend Marilyn Maye. Richard splits his time between a number of monthly residencies at iconic venues across the city-among them Mezzrow, sister venue of Smalls, Cortez has focused and refined his artistry while growing his wide fan-base.  Recent performances in distinguished productions such as Live at Emmet’s Place with the Emmet Cohen Trio, or Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz at Pride with Tony/Grammy Award winner Bryan Carter, have marked the vocalist’s career for success.

Richard Cortez’s renderings of timeless treasures by Cole Porter, Billie Holiday, Jerome Kern, and so many others deliver sweetness, self-assuredness and disarming vulnerability with a well-timed wit. Richard breathes exciting new life into this beloved material, forever reminding us that as we progress as a society, so do our stories told within these sacred songs.