Hammond Organ Extravaganza Part 1!!

First time I heard a B-3 was African-American gospel music on the AM radio in the states in the early 60s. I had never heard such a sound before, very energetic and dramatic.

Anyway I think I may have some old B-3 prices, give me an hour or two on that.

Dick, in the book The A-Z Of Analogue Synthesizers Part One: A-M (by Peter Forest) I stumbled upon these facts:

Edited by erik neuteboom - October 09 2007 at 13:20

Erik have you any indicators as to comparative prices of Hammond on the European marketplace from aroun 1960, that is in comparison to keyboards more commonly available?Just come across a recording of an album of Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger 1964-67, although it isn't particularly obvious they were recorded together on all tracks, nor keyboards were prominent ion all tracks, nor that a Hammond was present on all tracks - in passing, the opening tracks suggest they were grooming Driscoll to compete with Dusty Springfield!

Winwood is great, I also like a lot of Emmerson's stuff, especially with ELP and Tony Kaye's work with Yes. There is a cut on 6 Wives where Wakeman cuts loose with some wicked RnB Hammond, wish he would have done that more often.

As mentioned before Brian Auger was a huge influence on all British rock keyboardists. He started as progressive rock and slowly shifted to RnB/jazz.

There is a book you may want to check out called: The Hammond Organ Beauty in the B by Mark Vail.

I thought of another good example of Larry Young's playing, its that album McLaughlin and Santana did together, not a great album, but Larry Young provides excellent shimmering tone colors functioning like a tambura player.

Larry Young's early career is more traditional 60s jazz with the occaisonal Beatles or Motown lounge cover thrown in. Later he discovered a much more psychedelic style and started using the drawbars a lot. He did an interesting trio with McLaughlin and Tony Williams, but they are a bit inconsistent. I think his solo work and work with Miles are the best.

Before Hendrix died he was jamming with Young and it is possible they were going to form a band with Miles. Young is also at his most psychedelic on McLaughlin's Devotion which also features the Band of Gypsys rhythm section. I have heard that McLaughlin was filling in for the recently deceased Hendrix and in a tribute, McLaughlins playing shows a strong Hendrix influence. A very unique record for McLaughlin, suprisingly psychedelic.

Yeah Lord and Rollie are the two people who made me want to get into playing myself.

Anyway, excuse my persistence but I was still curious if you have checked out Lord's lengthy psychedelic solo that comes after Space Truckin on Made in Japan. I think it stands alone in the history of Hammond solos. Not neccessarily the best, but easily one of the noisiest.

Thanks for the reminder of Larry Young - the reminder propelled me to order one  of his CDs from Amazon, which should have done a long time ago. Thank Q!

Edited by Dick Heath - October 09 2007 at 05:36

Hi Erik, I have been a big fan of Hammond players for a long time, jazz, rock, funk, blues, RnB, avante-garde and exotic lounge too.

I want to reccomend Larry Young as a very unique player. Towards the end of his career he really started to use the drawbars as a constantly shifting psychedelic soundscape. Check out his work on his own Lawrence of Newark or with Miles on Big Fun. His influence is highly evident on the Santana Caravanserai album.

I would also like to reccomend Jon Lord's solo during the long instrumental that comes after Space Truckin on the Deep Purple album Live in Japan. Except for maybe Sun Ra or the very young Chick Corea I have never heard a keyboard played with this much aggression, energy and imagination. He does to the Hammond what Jimi did to the guitar, and then some.



Edited by Easy Money - October 08 2007 at 23:20

Love the hammond, and the keys in general  I personally play them. I love the underrated work by Steve Winwood in that kind of keyboard...

Nice work Erik, btw!

erik neuteboom wrote: About House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals, this was not a Hammond organ but a Vox Continental (with that distinctive red top), one of the most popular combo organs (less heavy and less expensive), also used by The Beatles and The Dave Clarke Five (source: Rock Hardware - Miller Freemann Books).

I'm sure you are right wrt to Alan Price - Manfred Mann as well?. However, that website author states he saw the Animals on TV - I guess US TV - and therefore do we have a case of a British band breaking and touring the States and buying instruments (including Hammonds) whilst there on the money made? Alan Price (several year after leaving the  Animals) and Georgie Fame I think appeared in their own series on BBC TV in the late 70's, and I'm sure both played Hammonds as the normal by then.