For those unaware, Doug MacDonald is a fine bop-based guitarist in the tradition of Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, and Joe Pass. He was raised in Honolulu and started on guitar when he was 13, having briefly played trombone before. MacDonald moved to Los Angeles in 1984 after a year in Las Vegas and made a strong impression as a freelancer.

In 1990, he relocated to New York. Doug MacDonald has played with top musicians, including Stan Getz, Sarah Vaughan, Buddy Rich, Hank Jones, Bob Cooper, Bill Holman, Jack Sheldon, and many others, recording with Sheldon, the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra, and as a leader for Cexton and Resurgent; one of the latter is a nonet album.

MacDonald’s newest recording, Tribute to South Central (out June 1st, 2026 via his own label Dmac Music) features the prolific jazz guitarist at the head of a new quintet/sextet that incudes trumpet, keyboards, bass, drums and percussion.

The colorful group performs three standards and five of MacDonald’s inventive originals which contain plenty of subtle surprises.

1. Blues in the Desert
2. Mr. Walker
3. Captain Bacardi
4. Self Portrait
5. GG
6. Mine or Yours
7. Luces Azules
8. Sam-or-Eye

Paying tribute to the legendary area in Los Angels where jazz cubs used to be quite numerous and where the guitarist had happy experiences playing with Ernie Andrews, Jack McDuff and many others, MacDonald opens his new recording on the lushly smooth Blues in the Desert and the formidable Mr. Walker, and then we get the rhythmically grooved Captain Bacardi, the sheer elegance of Self Portrait and the upbeat and joyful GG, before the set rounds out on the stridently controlled Mine or Yours, the affectingly groovy Luces Azules, coming to a close on the alluringly hypnotic Sam-or-Eye.

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www.dougmacdonald.net

Doug MacDonald @ Instagram