Looking for "That Sound"

[BlueSpirits]

Hello!

This is my first posting in here at organissimo. I discovered the site a couple months back, which led to me discovering the band as well. I have always been a lover of the Hammond organ sound, and am a life-long jazz enthusiast. I play guitar and trumpet and a bit of piano, as well. Anyway, I have recently been going for a deep dive into organ jazz, trying to discover artists I may have overlooked or slept on. I seem to be attracted to a very specific type of organ jazz, (and jazz in general). That would be the Larry Young style, obviously Unity and Contrasts, Into Something, Of Love and Peace, Mothership. You get the idea.

I decided to learn as much as I could about the famous jazz organ artists, and have been attempting to go methodically through their discographies. Here are the artists I have gone through so far, and what I have discovered. 

Jimmy Smith- Obviously amazing. I particularly like the late 50's to mid 60s stuff. And yet, this style eventually leaves me wanting something with more harmonic complexity.

Baby Face Willette- Cool, but not something I would put on again.

Richard "Groove" Holmes- Some very cool albums, like After Hours and Get Up and Get it, but also a lot of overly sweet and poppy albums.

John Patton- I really like his sound, but man, I found the compositions extremely repetitive and uninteresting. He seemed to get a lot more interesting from album to album. Accent on the Blues I found quite awesome.

Jack McDuff- Really good and funky, greasy. But again, not that harmonically interesting to me. Especially like Moon Rappin' and To Seek a New Home.

Jimmy McGriff- Nothing that I heard really appealed to me. Huge discography, so maybe I am overlooking a lot.

Johnny Hammond Smith- Reminds me a lot of Groove Holmes. The more bop-oriented stuff is great. Albums like Black Coffee and Open House.

Shirley Scott- Awesome. Now that's some swinging jazz, playing a lot of standards with chord changes beyond blues. She lost me in her 70s stuff, though.

Rhoda Scott- From what I've heard so far, she is most excellent and can do it all.

Reuben Wilson- I was excited to check out his albums after reading about Blue Mode and Love Bug, and man was I disappointed. Especially with such a killer line-up. The tunes sounded aimless and overly saccharine and poppy.

Don Patterson- Ok, this guy kicks some serious ass! What amazing bop lines, great sounds, can burn over complex changes. Probably my second favourite, after Larry Young.

Freddie Roach- I actually dig his albums quite a bit. I like his understated approach, and there are subtle notes he plays that i find fascinating. He gets a great atmospheric sound.

Dr. Lonnie Smith- Amazing. I especially like his modern work on Blue Note. This is the more harmonically complex and exploratory sound I love. In my top 5, for sure.

Melvin Rhyne- Really dig his playing on both the albums he led and those with Wes Montgomery.

Charles Earland-  Funky as hell. When I'm in the mood for that style, he would be my go to.

Charles Kynard- He would be in my top 5, for sure. His first album was an excellent blend of Gospel and jazz. His later 60s stuff got funkier, but I hear a certain sophistication to his note choices. Reelin' With the Feelin' is on fire from start to finish,

 

I guess that wraps up the big-name classic guys and gals.

As for more modern players.  Joey DeFrancesco can do it all and his discography is so large and daunting, but I know he has that sound I am looking for in there somewhere

                                                Barbara Dennerlein is pretty amazing. I love her compositions and playing, but a lot of the production isn't to my liking. Something cold about it?

                                               Organissimo- From what I have been able to hear, the best blend of modern and classic organ jazz that I've heard to date.

                                              Larry Goldings-  The most interesting player I have heard so far.  Very neat compositions and playing.

                                              John Medeski- Love his sound and approach, but actually prefer his piano playing hahah.

 

 

 

My apologies for the length of this post. I'm hoping those more knowledgeable than myself on the issue can direct me to the stuff that I'm craving, haha. I admit I am seeing this very simplistically here- that there is the repetitive, blues/funk organ jazz which I dig, but only for a short while. Then there's the more modal or bop stuff that I really love, with more complex chords and interesting melodies,  and I'm just hoping some of you can direct me to specific artists or albums that I might have overlooked.

Thanks!

And thanks for letting me join this community,

 

 

 

 

 

                                   

 

[JSngry]

15 minutes ago, BlueSpirits said:

Jimmy Smith- Obviously amazing. I particularly like the late 50's to mid 60s stuff. And yet, this style eventually leaves me wanting something with more harmonic complexity.

Maybe listen to the later Jimmy Smith? The basic tunes didn't really change, but the lines he played certainly did.

And have you checked out Doug Carn? Or Chester Thompson? Or Don Pullen on organ. Or Amina claudine Myers

Also...maybe you'll like this, maybe not, but there's a very interesting improvising classical organist, Aaron David Miller) whose records totally captured my imagination. Not for everybody, though!

Apparently there's a whole genre of improvising classical organists, I've not yet cone down that rabbit hole yet. But this guy does things like make percussion instruments out of old organ pipes that me designs himself. Pretty interesting guy.

Here's a record to get!

 

Oh, bill Heid, have you checked out Bill Heid?

[BlueSpirits]

Thanks for your reply!

 

I have not heard any of the artists you mentioned, and I just clicked on the Amina Claudine Myers link and my mind is blown! Yes! That's awesome! It swings. It's "out" but not free. Oh yeah!  I knew I would get some good advice.

 

I also love classical music (really into Marcel Dupre) so I'm going to have fun checking out Aaron David Miller.

As for later Jimmy, what albums should I check out that show a different style of lines?

[JSngry]

These two. Just don't expect different typ tunes:

Big thanks to fellow member CJ Shearn for calling these two out. The copies come cheap, so carpe diem!

Also, keep in mind that Coltrane played with Jimmy Smith back in the Philly days, and there's still farily reasonable speculation that Smith opened Coltrane's ears to the whole "sheets of sound" thing, as well as some more chromatic thinking. Don't let all the "commercial" albums (whatever that means...), Smith had a keen musical mind from beginning to end. And he made money with it, Good for him!

Just keep in mind, it's not like he turned into Larry young or something. He was always gonna be Jimmy smith. But the depth of his playing (when he wanted to show it) kept going until the end, and although a casual listen might mqake it sound like "more Jimmy smith", paying attention to all that gets thrown in there along the way reaps no small dividends.

For that matter, Eddie Harris is another one, so maybe check those one out:

Just little things he drops in there and keeps going like it didn't happen...in many ways, the highest form or artistry?

[Joe]

Speaking of Philly and Trane connections... you might also enjoy Trudy Pitts' work. 

Jeff Palmer definitely helped keep the Larry Young flame burning in the 80s and 90s. EASE ON with Arthur Blythe, John Abercrombie and Victor Lewis is a good place to start.

Edited February 5, 2021 by Joe

[Rabshakeh]

There is one really good historic thread on this forum giving an overview of the development of jazz organ from novelty to deadly serious.

I'll see if I can dig it out later.

[BlueSpirits]

9 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

There is one really good historic thread on this forum giving an overview of the development of jazz organ from novelty to deadly serious.

I'll see if I can dig it out later.

Thanks! That would be really neat to check out.

 

I totally forgot about Trudy Pitts. Yes, she is pretty rad. Also, I'm a huge John Abercrombie fan and I even have one Jeff Palmer album (Abracadabra) but I never really checked out his other albums. I should do so.

 

I just listened to The Master(Jimmy Smith) and it was excellent. The production is so clean, you can hear everything going on. I did notice his lines had some more exoticism going on than I have heard from him before, so your observation was spot on. Great album, and now I will listen to number 2!

Thanks for the recommendations so far, guys!

[JSngry]

If you like Abercrombie, you've hear him with Jan Hammer on organ, correct?

If you only know Hammer post-Mahavishnu….there are some things to check out, let's just say that.

[BlueSpirits]

Yup, Timeless is probably on my top 10 albums of all time. Hammer has some great albums- The First Seven Days is far out!

Which reminds me, Abercrombie had that amazing organ trio with Dan Wall and Adam Nussbaum! I totally forgot about that. That is exactly the kind of music I've been talking about, haha. I must have played that While We're Young cd thousands of times. Did Dan Wall ever do anything else after that trio? Oh yeah, he was also on Abercrombie's Open Land album. That was a killer.

[Rabshakeh]

11 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

There is one really good historic thread on this forum giving an overview of the development of jazz organ from novelty to deadly serious.

I'll see if I can dig it out later.

This was the one. 

[JSngry]

that's the one!

[felser]

You might also check out Brian Auger.   And the work that Mike Ratledge did with Soft Machine (especially on their third and fourth albums).

 

[Milestones]

If you want to check out players who are different and play organ in a more subtle style, I recommend these two:

• Larry Goldings--has played with with John Scofield (extensively), Peter Bernstein, Jim Hall, and many others
• Dan Wall--most notably for his work with John Abercrombie (yes, I see you're up on him; Open Land is a favorite of mine too).

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by Milestones

[JSngry]

Bill Heid is the guy who's under the radar in these type conversations. Larry Goldings is approachable, Bill Heid...maybe some edge there,

 

 

 

[HutchFan]

 

and

[BlueSpirits]

2 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

This was the one. 

Amazing. what a great informative read. Almost makes me wish it went even later to cover the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s....

9 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Bill Heid is the guy who's under the radar in these type conversations. Larry Goldings is approachable, Bill Heid...maybe some edge there,

 

 

 

Am absolutely going to be checking him out.