Hammond B3 Organ

Mmm, the Hammond B3 organ (with Leslie rotary speaker cabinet) is such an expressive instrument. I am a drummer/percussionist with a great ear but limited piano skills. If I could do anything musically, I’d love to “pull out all the stops” and tear it up on the B3. It’s got a sound like no other. Actually many, very unique sounds in fact. I enjoy hearing it play supportive roles in band settings as well as full-on lead instruments. It’s a complex, rich instrument steeped in tradition and very versatile to so many musical genres.

My love affair with the B3 began with baseball stadium music. I’m not much of a baseball fan, but going to games was enhanced with the happy, bouncy, jazzy-blues of the stadium organist. It added so much to the experience, plus for me, it was a sound that I wasn’t used to hearing on a regular basis. I hadn’t been in urban gospel churches or frequented old, smokey jazz clubs or blues bars. I totally fell in love with the sound and the skill required to play such an instrument. I mean, the bass lines played with the feet, the double stack of keys and all the knobs, switches and pulls – so cool!

Several years ago, I started collecting any B3 music that I could get my hands on. Some of my absolute favorite organists are: Joey DeFrancesco, Jimmy McGriff, Paul Shaffer, Jimmy Smith and Dr. Lonnie Smith.

Joey DeFrancesco

Joey DeFrancesco is an American jazz organist, trumpeter, and vocalist. Down Beat’s Critics and Readers Poll selected him as the top jazz organist every year since 2003. Today, Joey DeFrancesco plays an average of 200 nights a year on the road with various musicians. His core bands include Byron Landham (drums), Paul Bollenback (guitar) or Pat Bianchi (keyboards)and Colleen McNabb (vocals). When not on the road, he resides in Arizona with his family and daughter.

Jimmy McGriff

James McGriff was a hard bop and soul-jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who developed a distinctive style of playing the Hammond B-3 organ. However, it should be noted that Jimmy was one of the first B3 players to add MIDI to the upper keyboard his personal B3 to add and extend “his sound” beyond just the drawbar sound of the B3. He incorporated synthesizers in his live performances as he liked Vibes, Piano, String, Brass and other sounds that could only be created by a synthesizer as the classic B3 can not. Jimmy purchased the XB-3 as he had more control over the MIDI functions and the XB-3 weighs about half of the classic B3 which made it easier to move. Jimmy, as well as Groove Holmes, spent a great deal of time experimenting and modifying their B3’s and Leslie Speakers over the years. Some of these modifications made their way into products manufactured by both Hammond and Leslie, which they didn’t always get credit for.

Paul Shaffer

Paul Shaffer is a Canadian musician, actor, voice actor, author, comedian, and composer. Currently, he is the bandleader and sidekick on the Late Show with David Letterman. Shaffer has released two solo albums, 1989’s Grammy nominated Coast to Coast, and 1993’s The World’s Most Dangerous Party. Shaffer has also recorded with a wide range of artists, including Donald Fagen, Ronnie Wood, Grand Funk Railroad, Diana Ross, B.B. King, Cyndi Lauper, Carl Perkins, Yoko Ono, Blues Traveler, Cher, Chicago, Robert Burns, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Nina Hagen, Robert Plant, Scandal, Late Show regular Warren Zevon, jazz trumpeter Lew Soloff and jazz saxophonist Lou Marini.

Jimmy Smith

Jimmy Smith was a jazz musician whose performances on the Hammond B3 electric organ helped to popularize this instrument. In 2005, Smith was awarded the NEA Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honors that the United States bestows upon jazz musicians. While the electric organ was used in jazz by Fats Waller and Count Basie, Smith’s virtuoso improvisation technique on the Hammond helped to popularize the electric organ as a jazz and blues instrument. For ballads, he played walking bass lines on the bass pedals. For uptempo tunes, he would play the bass line on the lower manual and use the pedals for emphasis on the attack of certain notes.

Dr. Lonnie Smith

Dr. Lonnie Smith is a jazz musician, recognized as an exceptional player of both the Hammond B3 organ and piano. Smith has performed at several prominent jazz festivals with artists including Grover Washington, Jr., Ron Carter, Dizzy Gillespie, Lou Donaldson and Ron Holloway. He has also played with musicians outside of jazz, such as Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Etta James, Joan Cartwright, and Esther Phillips. He was named the “Organ Keyboardist of the Year” in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, and 2009 by the Jazz Journalist Association.

[credit: wikepedia.org]