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Happy Birthday Big John Patton


Soul Stream

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I'll do some "Understanding" when I get up tomm. ;)  I was listening to "Along Came John" the other day.

Yeh I had that on the other day when cleaning around the house.

That and that certain feeling....he really does is for me as an orgainst along with Larry Young

Which reminds I have a long not heard copy of Soul Connection to go and search out...

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thats a great pic, shows the intensity.  Isn't that from the Along Came John pics where theres one that looks like his eye is swollen shut? did Grant get too many right hands in that day?      :D

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Yes, it's from the booklet of the Mosaic Select. The picture from the session with his eyes looking very swollen is also the cover of the Blue Note series...the one called Tenors and Organs...or something to that effect. I gave Big John that CD mainly for the cover, and asked him about it. He thought it looked freaky himself and said it was just the picture. Another thing I remember from that day...we put on that CD and the first cut is Jimmy Smith's "The Sermon." John listened for a minute and then said, "I wish I had that kind of talent." He ALWAYS underestimated his gifts and abilities. I think he was such a natural that it always seemed that way to him...

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oh yeah "Latona" has a groove.  Soul Stream, John had a very unique approch to soloing as his lines were always fluid and interesting.

You know CJ, as an organist myself, I can vouch for the impossibley logical, coherent, unrushed world that is a John Patton solo. If you analyse his bassline on Latona, it's so difficult to play and solo over your head would explode. However, that difficulty is never passed on to the listener. Only another organist could appreciate it. That's the genius of Patton. Take his solo on "Shadow of Your Smile," every note is perfectly logical to it's scale, yet you'd never guess he was "thinking" at all while playing

And keep in mind, Patton told me he was VERY nervous doing the "Let It Roll" session because Bobby Hutcherson was on it. All that beautiful organ playing on that record was under the gun for Patton.

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I gotta grab myself another copy of "Roll" as I needed money one time during school and sold it. I have listened to Patton's basslines in depth on relatively simple stuff like "Along Came John" and "Congo Chant" and the way in which he handles them is marvelous. In particular, "Along" has a hump that I really like in that descending bassline that predominates thru the head and John's solo. I also really like that modal trio tune on "That Certain Feeling" as well. It's a shame these wonderful records compiled in the Select aren't available to a wider audience b/c your general casual jazz fan, its not like they'd know about such albums, outside of all of us. Those who think they know organ from groups like MMW and Soulive should hear this stuff. In college, when I was a teaching assistant in the jazz course, the day the set arrived for me I brought it to class and the teacher who gigs all around locally and knows a good chunk of stuff looked at it and said "Who's this? I don't know this guy".

Edited by CJ Shearn
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