Dirk Van der Linden-Paolo Negri - organists

[michel devos]

On the 20th of June, a very unusual evening has been set up in St Nicolas, Belgium, by a collector/technician specialized in the years 1950-1980 musical audio equipment.

Benjamin Massy owns several Hammond organs produced in 1945 and later such as the CV, BV and the infamous B3. These instruments were connected to Leslies 910 and 760 thru vintage Fender amplifiers of very high power, some of them feeding an extra bass cabinet fitted with JBL speakers in the spirit of Bill Beer's mods.

Bass guitar was accomodated by an Ampeg amp of 800 watts, the guitar by a Fender Twin. All the organs had been fitted with percussions which made them virtual B3's.

The music program was in the capable hands of, among others, Dirk Van der Linden, the undisputed master of the jazz organ in Belgium, Paolo Negri, a top italian player performing with his Link quartet, Simon Rigot, rather rock-oriented and a young italian player, Cedric Malvetti who played a repertoire of theatre organ music from the 40's in the spirit of Ethel Smith. Dirk Van der Linden played a battle with his top student, JJ Louis with incredible drive. Also featured was an Antwerp Jazz Conservatorium graduated of high calibre, Nick Puylaert.

For those of you reading some french, you might find more technical details in the article thru this link but everybody will hear some exciting samples of the equipment used by these players that I had the privilige to record that evening and that are included for musical illustration.

Here is the the link to Hammond Buzz : http://hammondandco.com/buzz once there, click Hammond en Belgique

The sound of these Leslies mods was so great that I would like to get as many informations as you all people have about Bill Beer and the likes : please let me know.

Thanks

Michel

Edited July 5, 2010 by michel devos