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Just listening to some Don this morning. I'm a real Patterson nut, and decided to kind of take a break from him about 6 months ago. Purely for musician-type reasons. To me, Don is such a beautiful player that it's hard not to get caught up in his thing. Anyway, I guess my break's over. Don's been playing all morning, and once again, I'm completely enthralled.

A couple of things that aren't mentioned much when people talk about Don. First are his wonderfully musical basslines. Really second to none, including Groove Holmes. Also, he beautifully melodic ballad playing. His sense of dynamics on a ballad is superb.

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I also listened to Don Patterson soon after I awoke today, "Hip Cake Walk" (Prestige 7349, 1964). I'm not an organ aficionado (Larry Young is the only organist that has captured my imagination with any consistency). I originally picked up "Hip Cake Walk" because of Booker Ervin. But this album has grown on me, as much for Don Preston's playing as Booker Ervin's contributions.

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We pulled out "Dem New York Dues" on the gig last night. Haven't played that tune in awhile. A friend who plays tenor was in the audience and was asking about it afterwards. It's a great tune... nice changes. I'm surprised it was never picked up as a standard.

I re-read this entire thread and realized that mikeweil asked about Don's newer version of "The Good Life" on Muse. That one is nice, but I absolutely LOVE the earlier version on Prestige. I had my friend Duncan learn and play that at my wedding! :)

More props for the Don!

Soul Stream, have you heard that wonderful David Ware record with Don Pullen (Shakill's II, I think)? It has a tune of Pullen's called "One For The Don" which is just a duet between organ and tenor. Beautiful tune that the liner notes say he wrote for himself, but when I first heard it I thought maybe he wrote it for Patterson. I could hear Patterson in there. It actually brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard. Beautiful tune.

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Wow B3-er...that must be a heavy tune. I'd love to hear it. I've NEVER heard Pullen play organ believe it or not. I'll have to keep and eye out for it.

As for "The Good Life." Of course the Prestige version is THE classic, but I do like the Muse one quite a bit, if not more at times for various reasons. For one, by the time he recorded the Muse side, you KNOW he's been playing it for years and it really comes through.

...I've been playing "The Good Life" for about 6 months now and never feel like I've gotten into it like I should be. It's a hard tune for me to really feel I'm in control of. Plus so much of that stuff Don is doing is so ....well....I get a bit overwhelmed and get that "I'm screwing this one up so bad, Don may rise up from the grave and choke me at any minute" feeling. :rolleyes:

...just a little thing on that tune...I like to play Barry Harris' turnaround from Mobley's version to get back to the beginning of the sequence. Dm/Em/Fm/G. It sounds real nice.

Edited by Soul Stream
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Yeah, I haven't even attempted it due to that very reason. Have you heard Joey's version on his Patterson tribute disc? Or the live one for that matter from the Incredible! disc with Jimmy Smith? He's almost there, but it doesn't quite have the soul that Don's does.

Speaking of that tribute disc, I was a little disappointed they didn't do "Dem New York Dues" on that!

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...seems like we're typing at the same time. I edited my last post with a little turnaround you might dig on "The Good Life." It's a really hard tune, but beautiful. It's so much a Patterson thing, I almost hate to play it. But it's a great learning device if nothing else for me right now. I'm almost tempted to abandon Patterson's take on it and play Mobley's...it's in Aflat which would be a nice change of pace for that tune. Don's in C, but mostly because he's doing all that chordal soloing.

As far as Joey's tribute to Don. I'm amazed by Joey. But he's no Don Patterson :o:D:) .!!!! (But who COULD be!)

Anyway, I'd love to hear your version of Dem New York Dues. Maybe a little clip for the site? :D

Edited by Soul Stream
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I've been thinking of putting up live mp3s but we haven't recorded live in about a year and we've improved vastly since then. I wouldn't want to embarass myself (or my fellow members!)

I'm going to try and record the Clearwater hit. We're also looking into buying our own sound system which would make on the fly recording much easier.

But back to Don: One tune I've always loved that he recorded is "These Are Soulful Days" from the Muse record of the same name. That's a funky tune!!!!

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Yes, I really love that 32Jazz comp. CD of Don's Muse stuff "Steady Comin' At You" with all that stuff on it. "These Are Soulful Days" is a monster. But like I mentioned in an earlier post. I have to kind of stay away from Don's stuff. It's so tempting, but for myself it's like a little leaguer trying to hit a homerun out of Fenway Park. I'm just not "there yet." He's a hard cat to pin down. I'm still trying to get "Funky Mama" down worth a damn (and Patton taught me how to play it). :rolleyes: In my heart of hearts I'm a Patton man. Those guys had different concepts and they're hard for me to reconcile sometimes in my playing.

Edited by Soul Stream
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I hope that Eddy Louis is one of the 5, nobody seems to mention him.

Recently I bought the 2 cds he did with Micel Petrucciani. YES piano and B# and it works, and as far as using pedals Mr Louis is a master

Oui, oui, Eddy Louiss! Check what he does with Stan Getz on the 'Dynasty' album on Verve and with his Eddy Louiss trio (Rene Thomas on guitar and Kenny Clarke on drums) on a Dreyfus CD.

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An incredibly fleet player. Patterson for me is the most convincing expoenent of Powell-inspired bebop on organ. And, in support of this claim I refer to you all...

d23984m1u2n.jpg

With Pat Martino, Howard McGhee, Charles McPherson, and Billy James.

I just wonder how differently Patterson might be thought of today had he recorded for Blue Note and not Prestige.

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Don Patterson is among my top five favourite organists.

I hope that Eddy Louis is one of the 5, nobody seems to mention him.

I said "top five" without really thinking about it ...

Don Patterson, Melvin Rhyne, Larry Young are definite choices.

Maybe I should have said top three. I also dig Rhoda Scott, Larry Goldings, Sam Yahel, Jeff Palmer, the newer Lonnie Smith sides, the early Groove Holmes Pacific Jazz sides ... some Charles Earland, well, some of all of them, but the three are my heroes.

I dig Eddy Louiss, have all of his trios with Kenny Clarke and the ones with Jean-Luc Ponty - where else do we get an organ trio with violin! these are great!" But his later stuff with synths leaves me cold.

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...I've been playing "The Good Life" for about 6 months now and never feel like I've gotten into it like I should be. It's a hard tune for me to really feel I'm in control of. Plus so much of that stuff Don is doing is so ....well....I get a bit overwhelmed and get that "I'm screwing this one up so bad, Don may rise up from the grave and choke me at any minute" feeling. :rolleyes:

I'd rather expect he lays a friendly hand on your shoulder and gives some pointers ...

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Soul Stream, the 2 albums with Pullen on organ that I know about are led by David Murray (not Ware). They are "Shakill's Warrior" and "Shakill's II". Both outstanding, and definitely worth hunting down. I see them in th used shops frequently - "Warrior" more than "II".

"Warrior"

- Murray (tenor)

- Pullen (organ)

- Stanley Franks (guitar)

- Andrew Cyrille (drums)

"II"

- Murray (tenor)

- Pullen (organ)

- Bill White (guitar)

- J.T. Lewis (drums)

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Don Patterson is among my top five favourite organists.

I hope that Eddy Louis is one of the 5, nobody seems to mention him.

I said "top five" without really thinking about it ...

Don Patterson, Melvin Rhyne, Larry Young are definite choices.

Maybe I should have said top three. I also dig Rhoda Scott, Larry Goldings, Sam Yahel, Jeff Palmer, the newer Lonnie Smith sides, the early Groove Holmes Pacific Jazz sides ... some Charles Earland, well, some of all of them, but the three are my heroes.

I dig Eddy Louiss, have all of his trios with Kenny Clarke and the ones with Jean-Luc Ponty - where else do we get an organ trio with violin! these are great!" But his later stuff with synths leaves me cold.

I recommend you also try , in the serie Jazz in Paris, the CD Bohemia after Dark.Eddy Louiss is assisted by Jimmy Gourley, Guy Pedersen and Kenny Clark :D

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  • 11 months later...

J Lee reminded me of this thread. "Why Not?" off the album of the same name has become one of my favorite tunes of late. It was written by Houston Person but the only place I've seen it is on Don Patterson's record on MUSE. I love playing that tune.

Here's a little ditty I wrote for Don called "Patterson's People". This is from our tour last August with Randy's father, Arno Marsh. This is very poorly mixed... it's basically just a reference so we can choose what tracks we may want to release from over 8 hours of recordings. But you can get the idea.

http://www.organissimo.org/pub/GL_15_2.mp3

We'll probably do this tune on our next record. It's fun to solo on. :)

Long live Don Patterson!

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I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was indeed Weeden's trio.  Nice to know he's still around.  It would be interesting to talk to him.

B3er,

I've talked to Paul a few times. He is from Indianapolis but has lived in Sweden for a long time. He has come back to Indy for the jazz festival a few times and I really dig his playing. Here is a photograph I made of him in 2003!

Edited by sheldonm
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