Jim Alfredson

And music by the Big O, right? Right?!

Yes, I want to get it transfered to a place in California. Then all we have to worry about are earthquakes, mudslides, and forest fires!!!!!!!

Actually you can get some very convincing pipe organ sounds from a Hammond. In fact, when Hammond first marketed the instrument as an "electric pipe organ" he was sued by the pipe organ manufacturers. They claimed since it didn't use air or pipes, it could not be called a pipe organ or even an organ. Hammond setup a demonstration in Chicago using his best musician to play the Hammond. The church (can't remember which one) had a great pipe organ and Hammond's musician played a piece on the pipe organ and then played the same piece on the Hammond. The judge and jury couldn't tell the difference, so the judged ruled in Hammond's favor, although he had to drop the word "pipe" from his literature. Anyway, I don't think of the Hammond as an electric instrument (it's actually electro-mechanical). Every Hammond tonewheel organ sounds different and each one can sound different when different musicians play them. For example, think about how many organ records were recorded at RVG's Englewood Cliffs recording studio. They were all recorded on the same organ: Rudy's C3 with a Leslie 21H. So that means Jimmy Smith, John Patton, Don Patterson, Jimmy McGriff, Jack McDuff, Shirley Scott, Joey DeFrancesco, Groove Holmes, Billy Gardner, Larry Young, Baby-Face Willette, Lonnie Smith, and whoever else I forgot, they all played the same organ. Listen to those records and you can hear how different the organ sounds in each of their hands. Some players do this and it's considered the "old", pre-Jimmy Smith style of playing. Jimmy used this technique as well, but mainly for ballads. The Hammond bass pedals are notoriously flabby sounding by themselves as compared to real pipe organ bass. That's why for uptempo tunes, Smith developed a "shadowing" technique. Basically you play the bass lines with your left hand and shadow those lines with your foot, tapping the corresponding pedal quickly, to add a staccato accent to the front of the note. This is what gives his bass lines the "hump". Jimmy's idea was that it simulates the attack of a real acoustic bass. Every now and then you lay into the pedal note, which adds another level of accent to the line. Listen to Jimmy Smith's bass lines versus Larry Young. Larry didn't use a lot of pedals, not because he couldn't (he does on the old Prestige stuff) but because he wanted a different, lighter sound. Larry Goldings doesn't use much pedals either. Same with Mel Rhyne. It's a different sound. I like using the bass pedals and have adapted, with the help and ideas of my mentor, the style of Chester Thompson from Tower of Power for funk lines and such. I never really have. I'm sure I could, but I don't read music so I don't know how much good it would do me! It took me a long time to get comfortable with the pedals but I have it down now so I don't even really think about it, just like my left hand. It just goes where it should.

What the hell?! Why wouldn't they let you play it? That's fucked up!

Pretty much. The server is in Cincinnati, which got hit hard by a massive snow storm last night. But things are back! That didn't take long!

Jimmy Smith's first BlueNote was "A New Sound, A New Star" in 1956. He was recording on organ as part of Don Gardener's band before that. As far as influences, you could probably count Wild Bill Davis, Milt Buckner, etc. But Jimmy Smith was not derivative of them. He carved out his own unique sound. You have to remember that the Hammond B3, which Jimmy made famous, was released in 1954. Hammond had other models before that (they started making electro-mechanical organs in 1935) but Jimmy took the new features of the B3 and ran with them, creating his own sound basically out of thin air. He did use the big block chords and "roller rink" settings of the aforementioned pre-Jimmy Smith organists, but also developed his own technique and sound. For instance, the classic Jimmy Smith lead sound (the sound he uses 99.9% of the time when he solos) is made by using the top manual, pulling the first three drawbars all the way out, using C3 chorus, and lastly using the third harmonic percussion on soft and with a short decay. The Hammond percussion feature was introduced with the B3. That means his sound, and the sound of all his contemporaries and followers, would not have been possible without the introduction of the B3. Also, his foot pedal technique was different than the others previous to him. And, as is often mentioned, his focus on horn-like, single note lines. I don't think it's really a "white dudes don't get it" attitude. I think it's more of a prejudice against electronic instruments in jazz. Somehow if you plug it in, it's not jazz anymore to some people.

I've been thinking about this thread all night. Chuck, I think you're misplacing your anger and frustration here. It should be with the label that owes George and won't give him the masters or re-release the album or whatever. I don't see how fans of his music, who just want to hear this long-out-of-print title are to blame. I must be missing something.

Chicago played very well tonight and I agree it's nice to see them turning things around. I'm a Scott Skiles fan for obvious reasons so it's good to see him having success. On the other hand, Detroit is pissing me off, but they are obviously going through hard times right now. I don't think they have recovered from the "basketbrawl" (though who can blame them? The media won't let them move on!) In fact, I know Larry Brown hasn't. I read a sobering interview with him where he said basically that his love of the game was damaged by that incident. He also said his son, who was a ball-boy, won't go back to the Palace since that fight... he's too scared. Multiply that by all the other kids that were in the Palace that night and it's really a terrible thing.

Yeah right. Trust me, organ combos do not get their due. Was there even one mention of Jimmy Smith in Ken Burn's shitty documentary? Nope. Not even in passing. There were no organ combos on the 5 disc anthology of jazz that was required for one of my courses at MSU either.

Yay!!!

I'm down.

Chuck, I'll admit I don't understand the full situation, if that's what you're saying. But I'm looking at things from a different perspective. I grew up with the ability to make a copy of anything I want. Back when I was a kid, I dubbed my father's record collection and my older sister's tape collection to tape. When my sister got her first CD player and started building a CD collection, I dubbed those too. Of course, I was 14 or 15 and didn't have any money. Right now I can dub LPs to CD, I can digitally copy CDs, I can even digitally copy dual-layer DVD movies (ie, general standard release movies that you can rent at a video store) if I want (I don't.) I can copy games for the xbox. I can basically copy anything. It doesn't mean that I do, but I can. I own over 2500 CDs and about 500 vinyl. Almost all of my vinyl I bought used which means the artists aren't getting anything. Most of that vinyl is stuff that is not on CD. If it is on CD, I probably have the CD as well. As a musician, who releases his own products, I long ago realized that I'm not going to make any money on album sales. There are just too many ways for people to get it for nothing. Technology has advanced to the point where you can copy and distribute anything. And there's nothing I can do about it. My goal with our first record was to break even. And we've almost done that. That's about all I can ask for. I expect to make my living playing music, not recording it. While I feel for George and I do hope he's able to get the masters, and I also hope this record eventually gets released on CD (and I'll probably buy it), railing against people who buy used LPs seems kind of pointless. It's the way our whole economy works. I buy used cars, I buy used books, I buy used CDs, I buy used audio equipment, I'm typing this on a used laptop I bought, etc. etc. The only thing I don't buy used are clothes and food! And in all those situations, it's the re-seller that's making the money, not the original manufacturer/author/artist/etc.

By the way, if he's not wearing this get-up on the cover, I don't want a copy....

With all due respect, this is much ado about nothing.

Pistons lose to Chicago?! Criminey. I'll say it again... their bench sucks. I have no idea why Joe D let the bench go.

I understand your point Chuck, but it's not my fault George made a record on a label that doesn't exist anymore. It's also doubtful it will ever be re-issued. So either I can buy a copy from a used dealer, whereupon George still doesn't get a penny, or I can get a copy from Dan so I can at least hear the record. If it was on CD, I'd buy it. But maybe I'd buy it used. In which case George still wouldn't see any money. This touches on one of the things that no one inside the music industry likes to talk about. They like to blame downloading for the recent decline in CD sales but what about used CD shops? Personally, I buy a lot of "new" releases from my local used CD store simply because they have a better selection of discs than any other place in Lansing (since Tower Records came in and put all the mom & pop record stores out of business... and then went out of business itself).

Well, I guess I could spend $60+ on a vinyl copy on eBay. And exactly how much of whatever the final bid goes for will Mr. Freeman see?

Do a search for "Conn Naked Lady" on eBay and you'll see. They are pretty desirable, although tenor moreso than alto. My dream horn? A 1950s King Super 20 Silversonic. OH YEAH! That's what Cannonball played on. Yes, Cannonball played the alto and I think Stanley T played the tenor for awhile! Woot!

Hey Dan.... can you burn two? I'd love to hear this!

Yes, but way back in the 80s. See this thread... http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...opic=13634&st=0

THE MARTIANS ARE COMING!!

Dex certainly freely shared credit ... In the hands of Dex this tenor looks like an alto! He was huuuuuuge, and he had that great deep voice to fit. I'd die to get a chance to see him live You pretty much have to now....

That's some good shit! Someone should make a book.... people will buy anything.

By the way, I fixed Chuck's link. It works now.

Vinyl has a lot of high-end so all phono preamps apply EQ to the signal before the amp in order to balance the frequencies. Otherwise vinyl would sound tin-y and have little or no bass. The RIAA curve is a default EQ standard for vinyl now. There were others but they didn't catch on.