Jim Alfredson

I blame it on the fact that our culture has accepted music as disposable. And so the general public finds no value in it and thus won't pay for it. Why our culture regards it as disposable? Greedy record companies are partly to blame, for sure.

Vote for Gene or you suck.

You guys are making way too much out of this. Why is the organ on Live At Smalls distorting? Because it's a live gig and Jimmy is pushing it at full bore to get above the drums, the guitar amp, the noise from the crowd, from the kitchen, from the city itself. Happy accident. People who wanted to be Jimmy Smith heard that and thought "Hey, that's the way it should sound!" And thus a social construct was formed around the idea of how Jazz Organ sounds. And it sounds cool. Tubes saturate in a way that is pleasing and thick and creamy. Those live Groove Holmes records are the same way. The live Johnny Hammond Smith records, same thing. Live Shirley Scott. Live McDuff. Live everybody back in those days. PA's sucked. The only way to do it was to push the instrument / speaker to it's limit. From that social construct learned via live recordings, the sound became standard and so it was replicated in the studio by some. Those Solid State McGriff recordings feature an amazingly saturated organ sound that is gorgeous. Same with McDuff on some recordings. Others chose to go another route, maybe to make themselves different. A recording engineers job is to capture the sound the musicians produce, not to make a judgement on whether it is aesthetically correct or not.

All good suggestions. For modern recordings, check out Joey D. His basslines are solid and you can hear them really well due to modern recording techniques. Just don't try his solos unless you want to break your fingers!

I prefer a clean organ sound myself; clean until you really start pushing it, then it breaks up a bit. But that's just me. To me, it's not really distortion, but saturation. Like Allen says, a function of tube rectifiers being pushed hard, usually when the organist is kicking bass. Keep in mind that your standard tube 122 or 147 Leslie is only about 40 watts. That's not a lot of wattage to get above the din of the drums, an electric guitar, and the crowd, especially when that 40 watts is also pushing very low frequencies coming from the bass pedals or left hand. It has become part of the sound because it's a pleasing sound to most people. It growls. It makes the static electric organ sound more alive. It sounds cool.

I'll be at the Hudson River Blues Festival in Manhattan this weekend if anyone wants to come out. I play at 3:45pm on August 22nd with Janiva Magness. http://www.hudsonriverpark.org/events/eventpanel/bluesBBQ.html Here's a little taste of what you'll get if you come on out.

I keep forgetting to update this thread. Luckily medjuck saw our show listed in the paper and came out to Santa Barbara the other week! Upcoming weeks, finishing up August. 12 Bowling Green, OH The Clazel Theater 13 WFPK Live Lunch 91.9 FM WFPK, Louisville 13 Louisville, KY The Vernon Club 14 Wheeling, WV Heritage Blues Festival 22 New York, NY Hudson River Festival

Larry, shoot me an email: b3groover at gmail dot com. Concerning the expression pedal volume, what pedal are you using? You can adjust in the menu system what the top range of the pedal is, going all the way up to 140%, I believe. The Leslie 825 doesn't have a horn rotor, right? It's just the bottom rotor? I wouldn't bother with it, personally. The upper horn rotor is pretty important. The organ is going to sound very muted without it. If I were you, I'd consider getting a Neo Instruments Ventilator. A lot less weight than a Leslie and you can play it through any speaker / monitor / powered PA speaker. Check out the comparison video I just did with the Ventilator vs and real Leslie 122.

I'll be at the Notodden Blues Festival in Notodden, Norway this weekend performing with Janiva Magness. It's under the moniker "Women Who Cook", since it's also with two other great blues singers, Thornetta Davis and Robin Rogers. We perform three shows, one each on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Don't know if we have any members here from Norway, but if so maybe we can get together.

Yeah, that was me. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Ueiay9P6-fM

Just re-read both books. A great read. On to the second two (Endymion and Rise of Endymion).

I've recorded with the XK3 through a 122 and through the 3300 many times. Sounds great. Lee, as Sean mentioned, the software behind the XK3c is different than the XK3, so the system setup file is not compatible. The good news is that the XK3c comes from the factory sounding very, very good. There are tweaks you can do to suit your own tastes, the room, and the Leslie you're using, usually nothing more than simple EQ adjustments and the amount of key-click. As for the XK3c and 3300 sounding like a real B3 and 122... they are very close. Not 100% but a digital simulacrum rarely is. The fact is they are a very playable and viable alternative to the real deal, especially when the cost and physicality of a real B3 and 122 just are not practical. In other words, don't worry about it and enjoy your instrument!

Lee, the settings will not work in the XK3c. Sorry. If I ever get an XK3c, I'll make a custom set for that.

BUT COLBERT HATES JAZZ, TOO!!!! http://www.artsjournal.com/jazzbeyondjazz/2008/10/colberts_tin_ear.html Oh, what to do!

When did he stop?

He's boycotted jazz? Why did I see Herbie Hancock on there just a few weeks ago? I thought it was a funny quip. And that's what it is. A quip. Big deal.

Thanks, Drew. C'mon folks.

As many of you know, the great Gene Ludwig passed away recently. Every year, Downbeat magazine does a Readers Poll. It used to be that you had to subscribe to participate, but now you can do it online as long as you subscribe to their email list. I voted and was appalled that Gene's name was not in the list for Best Organist. You can write in whoever you want, however. So I'm asking all you lovers of jazz and the Hammond B3 to vote and write in Gene's name in the organ category. He was firmly devoted to the instrument for over 50 years and a fantastic player. He was also a real gentleman and a dear friend. Let's honor his music and legacy. Click here to register and vote, please: https://subforms.com/downbeat/other/newsletter_request/index.asp Thank you!

Gene Ludwig should win the organ category this year. Of course, he's not even nominated so you'll have to write him in. But he should win it. The guy was a true gentleman, a monster player, and devoted to his craft for damn near 50 years. Oh and consider voting for my new boss, Janiva Magness, in the blues category. Thanks!

Why on earth would I be disappointed? I've only dedicated the last 17 years of my life to the instrument, permanently fucked up my back because of it, released four records with the now defunct organissimo on our own dime that I'm immensely proud of but nobody in the jazz press paid attention to, and I'm still broke as a joke because I continue to play it (though not necessarily in a jazz context these days)? What's to be disappointed about?

Interesting article. Thank you.

Quentin, thanks for the kind note. Check your email!

I don't think Zappa wanted the prog label (I remember reading that somewhere myself), but I would say a lot of his music certainly qualifies.

I don't really have a horse in this race, but this quote makes no sense. Vintage jazz & prog brought the Hammond organ back into vogue? So it was in vogue before vintage jazz and then Jimmy Smith suddenly brought it back? No, Jimmy Smith defined jazz on the Hammond, which led to it's inclusion into blues, then R&B, then rock, and then prog. It only went out of vogue in the 80s with the advent of cheap digital synthesizers. Then it came back full force in the 90's with neo-hippie rock bands and young jazzers.