Jim Alfredson

We just hit a new "Most Users Online" stat! 81 as of January 7th, 2004! Cool!

That's a great alias and/or song title.

Dude, either you're way off, or the rest of society is even worse off than I thought. From our dear friend PFunkjazz: Here's the original thread... Whatever happened to that guy?

His last name is Fischer. Black dude. I can't for the life of me recall his first name right now... damn. I am terrible with names. He sat in and sounded great. I've played with his dad, Count Fischer. He's a fantastic organ drummer. Soul Stream, there's a cat in Grand Rapids that you need to hear. When things calm down a bit I'm going to try and get him to come over and record some shit at my house. His name is Dan Richardson. He is a fantastic organist. At Randy's mom's funeral, he played with Randy and Joe on my B3 (backing up a singer) and was playing some incredible stuff. He blew my mind. The young Fischer played with him, too... that's why I'm thinking of him now. Shit. What is Fischer's first name?

I agree. If it sounds good, it is good. Our last record was recorded with headphones, with everybody in the same room as the drums, but all instrument speakers (the Leslie of my organ, Joe's guitar amps) in separate rooms. It worked out fine and sounds good. Our next trio CD will be recorded in my basement, with everyone in the same room together, instruments and all, because that's all I can do. I don't have multiple isolated rooms. And so far it sounds good, too.

I guess so!!! HA!

It took me several years to feel comfortable with the pedals. But I agree with my mentor: "If you don't play pedals, you might as well be playing piano!" I meet people all the time that are happy to see a "youngin" like myself carrying on the tradition. We had a drummer sit in at our last Founder's gig who grew up in GR (his dad is a great drummer as well) but is now down in Dallas. He said there's nobody in Dallas that plays the organ "the right way", ie using the pedals. He told me the first thing he did when he walked in and saw me playing was check out my feet! "You're for real!" No, they don't have to be used all the time and in fact I enjoy starting certain tunes without them and then adding them on the bridge (to use one example). Or in funk tunes, there's a whole different way of using them that Chester Thompson does really well.

Regarding the move to isolation and over-dubbing, many engineers (including one RVG) blame this on the musicians and producers. I don't think engineers are totally to blame. It definitely makes the process easier. Does it make it better? For some types of music, probably. For others, probably not. I ain't scared of no bleed!

Hadn't planned on it...

Forgot about this thread. How is this going, Moose? Are you still on the anti-depressants?

Well, yes theoretically. In theory, 16bit 44.1kHz has better dynamic room and resolution but it still sounds like crap compared to good analog, especially wide tape running at 30ips. Are you saying jazz recordings don't use compression? Digital has finally gotten to the point where it sounds neutral thanks to high resolution formats like 24bit, 96kHz recording. But it's been a long time coming. And it is wholy dependent on the quality of the converters and the strength of the word clock. Tape still has a certain sound that is only attainable by using tape. To me this arguement is like digital pianos vs. real pianos. In theory, digital pianos should sound great! You don't have to tune them, or worry about regulation (the action is always the same), they use samples from the best pianos in the world, meticulously recorded, etc. etc. But we all know compared to the real thing they sound like crap. Or even better, it's like the arguement of film vesus digital video. Digital video gives you all sorts of options that you don't have with film: It's easier, more convenient, easily manipulated, cheaper, looks sharp, etc. But I don't think anyone wants film as a format to die. Maybe it's because our eyes are "used" to it, but when I see film next to DV, film wins every time. It's just so rich. That's the best way to describe analog tape as well. Rich. Like chocolate. Digital is like tofu.

It's also a helluva lot of programming, of which I am not knowledgeable enough to do.

"Help, I don't have enough hands!!!"

And last but not least, Lute Face... Get down with that bad madrigal, boyeeee!

How about some Sitar Face?

Not necessarily. Well, you asked, so I guess I'll answer. I will preface this with the obligatory and obvious caveat that this is just my opinion. The timbre of her voice is wretched. It sounds like she's singing through the roof of her mouth, with absolutely no space vertically. It's all horizontal. Those are vocal terms, I don't know if they make sense. She also ends every phrase by dropping off the pitch of the note. I call it the "Elton John" effect. She never sings the end of a phrase by holding the pitch. It always falls away. Drives me CRAZY. It would be akin to a trombonist ending every phrase by hitting the note and then whipping his slide all the way out. Pla ....a ......a .......a ........a ..........t. Like a limp noodle.

There are basically three schools of playing the bass pedals. The pre-Jimmy Smith guys usually played all bass lines on the pedals. The bass pedals on the Hammond are notoriously "flubby" sounding compared to real organ pedals, but they do the job. Jimmy Smith developed a technique that I call "shadowing". Not sure if that's the common name for it. Basically, you play the bass with your left hand and shadow those notes with the pedals, tapping the pedal at the beginning of each note to create a staccato effect. The idea is to make the bassline sound more like an acoustic bass which is plucked. Tapping the bass pedal, but not holding it down, at the front of your left hand bass line simulates the plucking and gives the line what we like to call "the hump". Every now and then you lay into the pedals and sustain the note and it creates a nice effect. Jimmy Smith really only played all pedals on ballads and such. It's not to say that he couldn't, but the technique he developed leads to a more defined, more swingin' bassline. The last school is to not play pedals at all. Guys like Larry Goldings, Sam Yahel, and Larry Young. Larry Young did play bass pedals when he was copying Jimmy Smith (on his Prestige dates, for instance) and he used them for accenting here and there, but overall he does not use them like Jimmy. Goldings is much the same. Yahel uses them sparsely as well. Personally I prefer the shadowing technique. I think it provides a better feel and more tonal options. Check out this thread for more history of the organ: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...topic=4239&st=0

Do you have a big afro?

I think it's called bluegrass. I can't stand Natalie Merchant so I'll reserve further comment.

Cooltrane, keep practicing! It's the best thing you can do. Who are you listening to?

Cooltrane, don't worry about it. People here are over-sensitive to spam... I'm not sure why. We don't get that much of it and when we do it's kinda funny! Everybody is just looking out for each other around here. Stick around and feel free to post. You can learn a lot here. There are some very heavy cats hanging around.

Not a big deal. He's 17 years old and excited about equipment. I remember being the same way (and to an extent I still am!) Gear geeks unite!!

What's the Mahavishnu album were everyone is making that face in their picture on the inside cover (Birds of Fire?) Joe and I were laughing about that one. We nicknamed the record "Pitch Bend Madness".

Yes, but why is he playing bass? He shreds metal riffs on gee-tar, man.

I'm still waiting to see actual video footage from Joe G's high school talent show where he had long hair and was rockin' out Metallica tunes!! He's confirmed that video does indeed exist!