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DEC 24, 2016 – From Earlier in the Week- Jimmy Smith and More..

DEC 24, 2016 – What You Missed Earlier in the Week (Thanks to Me not Writing About It!)

So Wednesday my granddaughter Zoe and I ran some errands. The trip included: Walmart, the library and Lowe’s. For the trip to the library was an album that ‘i picked up at the Princeton Record Exchange a while back. It is a compilation album of tracks from albums that Jimmy Smith recorded on the Milestone label, during his brief tenure with the label. The album is titled Milestone Profiles: Jimmy Smith.

Milestone Profiles: Jimmy Smith.

Jimmy Smith has always been a jazz favorite of mine. My first exposure to jimmy Smith’s dynamic organ playing was the album The Dynamic Duo, he recorded with Wes Montgomery. Eventually Jimmy Smith’s Greatest Hits album became a favorite in my music rotation. That album introduced me to Jimmy’s hits like “The Champ” and “The Sermon” Through the years many Smith albums have been added to my music library!! read more

Melvin Rhyne – Jazz Organ – Born October 12, 1936

Melvin Rhyne an Original Member of the Wes Montgomery Trio and More!

One of my favorite things to do is to scroll down the daily list of birthdays at All About Jazz. I always check for names I am unfamiliar with and/or musicians who play instruments that I enjoy! Today as I looked over the list I noticed a Hammond B-3 Organ player Melvin Rhyne. I didn’t recognize Melvin’s name. However, after reading the following synopsis of the early years Rhyne’s career, I do believe I probably have heard his Hammond B-3 before……

Biography

Melvin Ryne was born on October 12, 1936 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her starte playing piano at an early age. He became a part of the city’s jazz scene at the age of 19 whenwhen….. read more

Charles Earland – Jazz Organist

Charles Earland– Hammond B3 -(May 24, 1941 – December 11, 1999)

I browse the daily listing of jazz birthdays each day not only for whose birthday it is that particular day, but also to discover new music. Many times I select who I read about by the instrument they play. Other times I select someone with a foreign sounding name, figuring that will lead me to explorations of jazz music beyond America’s shores. Tunisian born Wajdi Cherif is a perfect example of this type of choice. I read about, and spent time listening to Charles Earland’s music this morning, based on the instrument he plays – Hammond B3 organ!! read more

Exploring the Jazz of Milt Buckner and Jo Jones! Hammond B3 and Drums, All Right!

Among the jazz musicians birthdays yesterday was Hammond B3 organist and pianist Milt Buckner. Buckner was an influential musician on both instruments. He started out playing piano in Detroit in the 1930s.

By 1941 he had joined Lionel Hampton’s band and over the next 7 years he worked with the band as its pianist and staff arranger. Milt’s love of rocking rhythms and boogie-woogie messed nicely with Hampton;s style!.During this period, Buckner developed a uniquely percussive technique employing parallel tonal patterns, later referred to as “block chords.” Buckner’s locked hand technique would later be used by such greats as Red Garland, George Shearing, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson. read more

2014 Jazz Organ – from Jared Gold – JG3+3 = a great jazz sextet and album!

Somewhere a while back I became aware of jazz organist Jared Gold. I think I first saw Jared’s name when I was searching for Dave Stryker’s album 8-Track (which I still have not found). Anyway, over the last couple of months, I’ve watched Gold’s latest release JG3+3 climb the JazzWeek Charts and have gone to Spotify to check the album out and come away empty. This week I did the same thing and this time the album was available and it has been in my jazz rotation this week and I have a new jazz organist favorite to add to my ever-growing collection. read more

Re-Exploring Jimmy Smith – Jimmy Smith’s Greatest Hits! (video)

By the time I became familiar with the music of Jimmy Smith in 1969, Jimmy had already recorded thirty-one (31) albums on the Blue Note label and an addition 25 albums on Verve! So I started with a Greatest Hits Album that covered the Blue Note years. The condition of the album cover may give you an idea of how much the album has been used over the years! Anyway the other day I was sifting through my vinyl albums, saw it, cranked up the turntable and gave it a listen. I picked out the side 4 of the second side of the disk to of the album. Actually. that side of the album was not in too bad of shape!!Anyway I gave it a listen and the trumpet on the second track caught my attention the track title was “Flamingo” and the trumpet player was Lee Morgan!! Damn! I knew him way back when!! Then I started to look at the rest of the two-disk album and I found out that I knew several of the musicians that I’ve written about lately, way back then!! Here’s a table…… read more

This Day in Music – May 24, 1941 – Jazz Organist Charles Earland was born in Philly!!

This Day in Music – Jazz Organist – Jimmy McGriff was born!!

Jiimmy McGriff born on April 3,1936 in the Germantown section of Philadelphia!

On this date April 3rd in 1936 James Harrell McGriff was born in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.His musical journey started at the age of five when he started to learn to play the piano. By the time he reached his teen years he had expanded the group of instruments that he could play to include: vibes, alto sax, drums and upright bass. Growing up Jimmy Smith was a childhood friend. After a stint as an Army MP during the Korean War, McGriff returned to Philly and became a police officer. During that time his thoughts kept drifting towards music. By this time Jimmy Smith’s career was growing, after hearing Richard “Grove” Holmes’ organ playing at McGriff’s sister’s wedding McGriff was determined to learn to play the organ. Eventually Holmes became his teacher. In 1956 he bought his first Hammond B3 and spent six months learning to play, He ultimately studied at Julliard in New York City and privately with others including his friend Jimmy Smith! You can read his complete biography here at Wikipedia. read more

That PI Day in Music 3.14.34 – “The Queen of the Organ” – Shirley Scott was born!!

So the other morning, after I woke up from the crash that was a result of having had virtually no sleep the night before, as we waited for the birth of grandson,Oliver, I was looking at the jazz birthdays. Now if you remember, the night before I had posted about saxophonist Jeff Hackworth, and how his sax sounds like Stanley Turrentine and how like Stanley, Jeff often plays in an organ trio setting and how I thought that was neat because Stanley had played so often with Jimmy Smith. Well what the un-jazz educated Edward didn’t know was that in the 1960s Stanley Turrentine was married to and recorded a series of albums with jazz-organist Shirley Scott! (They divorced in 1969) From AllMusic: read more

A Morning with Hammond Heroes leads the Safari to “Bag of Jewels” from Lou Donaldson!

at Amazon

So this morning started with a cold walk to my office. I left the car at the office yesterday and walked home during the snowstorm! While that may have been a good idea yesterday, it didn’t seem that good this morning, when I faced a ten minute walk to work with single digit wind chill temperatures. But like I always say when I struggle through a run “At least the music was good!” The music came from an album released back in November titled Hammond Heroes. The album somehow got accidentally downloaded on to the iPhone a while ago and I didn’t delete it because of the title! Well am I glad I didn’t, because it’s got some great tracks on it. It’s has tracks on it from guys like Jimmy and Dr Lonnie Smith, Larry Young, and Jimmy McGriff where they are the top dog and then it has tracks where the organist is a member of the band or trio, pairing with folks like Pat Metheny. John Scofield, Lou Donaldson and Pat Martino. I was constantly looking at the tracks as great ones kept coming on, to see who was playing this time. Well, one of the tracks I liked right away was “Bag of Jewels” from Lou Donaldson. Donaldson is one of those oh, too many jazz artists whose name I know but not their music. the other track that caught my attention was “Oleo” from Pat Martino. Pat was another artist like Lou, and after listening to him play a few weeks ago on that tribute to Wes, I tracked down his music and listened to his album El Hombre and he is that!! read more

Category: Organ