Tagged: hammondb3organ

I don't know of many honking saxophonists who could match the pureness of Floyd "Candy" Johnson's tone. You won't find a more gorgeous rendition of the ballad "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" than the one on Johnson's 1973 release, "Candy's Mood: The Definitive Black and Blue Sessions." And Johnson's saxophone notes float through the [...]

Bassist William Parker recorded "Uncle Joe's Spirit House" for his aunt and uncle's 65th wedding anniversary last summer. If anyone's ever given a finer present, I haven't heard of it. In the liner notes, Parker calls the title track a head-bobbing shuffle that shifts like a boxer in training. It's an apt description, but, really, [...]

There are advantages to finding innovative ways to use your organ, and no one knows that better than the Lifetime Grammy Achievement Award-winning musical pioneer and member of Booker T & The M.G.'s, Booker T. Jones. As front man and organist, Jones' groundbreaking use of the Hammond B-3 organ, used mostly for church music, on the 1962 hit "Green Onions", had a huge ripple effect on other rock and soul musicians and bands who adopted the style. Backed here by the always awesome The Roots, Booker T. Jones kicks it off his latest album, The Road [...]

I've seen Bobby Broom play live more than a dozen times over the years and I always leave his shows convinced he's one of the top two or three guitarists still grooving this earth. I love hearing him play with Sonny Rollins, certainly. Pharez Whitted, too. But I think he might be at his best when he performs with the Deep Blue Organ Trio. The group gives him a chance to mine the core of both jazz and blues, and I'm not sure anyone does that better, unless it's organist Chris Foreman and drummer Greg Rockingham — Broom's [...]

Gene Ludwig might not be a household name, but I don't know many B-3 players who ever played the instrument better. Ludwig, who died Wednesday, had a thick sound that somehow never came off as heavy. That's probably because he moved so seamlessly from one idea to the next with effortless grooving spirals. The Pittsburgh native's career spanned more than 40 years, including "Night Letter," an easy-rolling album recorded with Sonny Stitt in the '60s. His last decade, though, might have been his best. In addition to his own excellent albums — I [...]

On two albums in the mid-'90s, Dr. Lonnie Smith used jazz to explore both the manic and the cerebral sides of Jimi Hendrix, often with surprising results. The albums — "Foxy Lady: Tribute to Jimi Hendrix and "Purple Haze: Tribute to Jimi Hendrix" — use Hendrix' music as a starting point, but Smith on organ, John Abercrombie on guitar and Marvin "Smitty" Smith on drums hardly stop there. On "Foxy Lady," Smith starts blasting meaty organ licks right away. The amazing thing, at least to me, is that he also coaxes [...]

A guitar lesson from Professor Kasper.

Bobby Espinosa has died. His organ helped make El Chicano's hit "Viva Tirado" sound like the best parts of Jimmy Smith, Tito Puente and The Doors all rolled into one. Espinosa, one of the founders of the East L.A. band, coaxed the same fat, seductive kinds of sounds out of his Hammond B3 that his contemporary Carlos Santa did out of his guitar. That's especially clear on El Chicano's searing instrumental rendition of "Cubano Chant." He showed his jazz chops on tunes such as "Cantaloupe Island" and added thick dollops of Latin soul. [...]

I've been listening on lala.com this morning to Federico Conti's "Organic B3 Groove!" Apparently, Conti's main gig is making remixes and running his own label, but he once studied with organist Shirley Scott and pianist James Williams, and that's a pretty fine jazz pedigree. "Organic B3 Groove!" is aptly named. Check out these videos:

The emphasis on the Brooklyn Soul Organization's self-titled release from 2004 is on the organ, which is evident if you look closely at the album's cover. No wonder. Radam Schwartz is one of the great Hammond B3 players in the world. But he has plenty of help. Brad Leali on alto and Grant Langford on tenor form a potent saxophone combo. And drummer Jerome Jennings does a lot more than just keep time; in addition to shaping the tempo, he shades every song with a variety beats that range from boisterous to contemplative. The music [...]

Rhoda Scott tearing through "Moanin'" on her Hammond B3 organ:

Lately, I've been devoting a few minutes every Sunday morning to Peter Blue's tranquil guitar meditations. I find the bluesy videos on Youtube help me chill as I sip my morning coffee and prepare for another week. Below, you'll find a clip of Blue's latest "morning tune-up" and another with his B3 combo, Blue Star, which he formed with organist Elizabeth Star.

I was looking for information about Panama Francis and found this video in which he's drumming for a group led by organist Milt Buckner. Buckner assembled a great lineup for the gig. Arnett Cobb's saxophone play is unbelievably sweet. The band also includes Buster Cooper on trombone, Eddie Chamblee on tenor saxophone, Earl Warren on alto saxophone, Wallace Davenport on trumpet, André Persiany on piano, and Roland Lobligeois on bass. I'm a big fan of Buckner's, so this clip was quite a find for me. Enjoy.

Jimmie Vaughan's responsible for turning one of my friends into a jazz fan. My friend, who's always been befuddled by jazz, started to get it tonight when Vaughan sat in on guitar with the Mike Flanigan B3 Trio. The fact that my friend's been a big Jimmie Vaughan fan for years was enough to lure him to the Gallery, a small venue attached to the Continental Club in Austin. And he started to sway when Vaughan started mixing blues, jazz and rock licks in front of Flanigan's fat B3 organ runs. The fact that the group played [...]

Just about the only thing I don't like about organist Radam Schwartz's "ORGAN-ized" is the cover of the CD. The pink and blue typography is cheesy chic. The photo is hard to read at a glance because it's crammed in sideways. (The photo I've attached with this post shows how folks are supposed to look at the CD, I suppose, but it's not the way the cover is presented in the CD casing.) Also, if you really want to know, I think the title's silly, too. But the music on this 1996 Muse Records release is [...]

Dr. Lonnie Smith's gutteral vocals on his cover of The Beatles' "Come Together" might turn some folks off because they sound almost like he's impersonating Tom Waits. I think his vocals are the perfect setup for the way he attacks the tune with his organ. The Beatles never sounded so raw and funky. That tune from Smith's new album — "Rise Up!" — will get your heart thumping. The bluesy beauty of "And the World Weeps" might make it stand still. Smith's opening notes on "The Pilgrimage" are right out of the church. [...]

Greek keyboard player George Kontrafouris gets a thick, meaty sound out of his Hammond B3 organ as he grooves through "The Notebook," one of eight tunes on his "Little Daddy's Blues" album. The track also features some lively solos by tenor saxophonist Manuel Dunkel. In contrast, Kontrafouris' organ parts on "Teenie's World" sound more like a breathy whisper as he backs and then answers guitarist Sami Linna's lovely solos. Kontrafouris romps through "Heatin' E" on his piano and adds some funk with his organ. It's a saucy blues that sounds good enough to be [...]

Jim Pugh, the keyboard player for the Robert Cray Band, refers to the songs on his new album as sketches. It seems to me that they're a lot more than that. The 10 tunes on the CD, "Background for a Soulful Life," are intricate musical portraits painted with sure strokes on his Hammond organ. On his Website, Pugh says he plays what he heard as a young musician working at the Stardust Lounge in San Francisco. There's blues, to be sure, and soul jazz in the style of the great Hammond B3 master Jimmy Smith. There's [...]

I love several Grateful Dead albums and I adore "Old and in the Way," a bluegrass collaboration between Jerry Garcia and David Grisman. But none of those recordings move me like the ones Garcia made with organist Merl Saunders, who died Friday. An old girlfriend, a Deadhead, introduced me to their music because she knew I was as fanatic about Hammond B3 organists as she was about the Dead. I've been grateful ever sense. Saunders softened Garcia's sound at times, adding layers of soul when they played songs such as Bob Dylan's "Positively [...]

I think most music fans would probably acknowledge that B.B. King's rendition of "The Thrill is Gone" is one of the sexiest grooves in history. On "Thrill Groove," Earl Gilliam reworks the tune using his organ and makes it sound thicker and saucier. On his "Texas Doghouse Blues" album, Gilliam, a Texas bluesman who's played with Albert Collins, Gatemouth Brown and Lavelle White, shows why he's considered one of the great blues organists in history. In addition to "Thrill Groove," the album features organ showcases such as "Twist 2," a funky little [...]