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. His sophmore release, Nightbird, is a out now exclusively on LA Reserve records.