I was a big fan of bands like The Bomboras and The Lords of Altamont during their heydey in the 1990s and 2000s, but there is such a deep, rich reservoir of farfisa and hammond organ-based garage rock that it boggles the mind. The ever-excellent Greek record label G.O.D. RECORDS (Garden Of Dreams) offers what ends up being about fours albums’ worth of fuzzy organ music to whittle your day away with. A solid compilation all the way through.
From the Acid Jazz Bandcamp site:
“To mark the 35th Anniversary of Acid Jazz, we have been reissuing seminal records from our catalogue on colour vinyl. The final instalment – and the second James Taylor Quartet release in the series – is this this version of ‘Mission Impossible’ is pressed on a fitting red vinyl.
The original release track-listing showcases JTQ’s sixties soundtrack odyssey – driving organ instrumentals from the beginnings of Acid Jazz, showing James and the original lineup in their prime. Alongside Lalo Schifrin’s iconic title track appear tracks by Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon and Bacharach & David, before the Taylor-penned original ‘The Stooge’ closes out this lean, hip collection.”
Led by guitarist Takis Barbagalas, Will-O-The Wisp are a Greek psychedelic rock band from the late 1990’s whose Hammond organ-infused rock sounds as authentic as anything from the late 1960’s to early 1970’s.
Don’t let the cover fool you – Grup Doğuş produce great Andalou music! The band hails from Germany but have Turkish roots, and bring the wild sound of Anatolian Rock and meld it to surf music, psychedelic rock and Hammond organ vibes.
Brian Auger is the father of Acid Jazz and really needs no introduction, but his Bandcamp site provides a fine one anyway for those of you readers who haven’t had the pleasure of being introduced to the man:
“Soul Bank Music announces a back catalogue deal with legendary musician and jazz keyboard master Brian Auger – with the release of a career spanning compilation ‘Auger Incorporated’. Lauded and loved by artists as diverse as Mose Allison to The Brand New Heavies, his tracks have been sampled by Mos Def, Common, Air and Kid Loco, his original compositions covered by Sarah Vaughan, Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes and The Main Ingredient.
Auger Incorporated includes classics and rarities from Brian Auger’s ground-breaking, genre busting catalogue, and reaches back to his early 60’s debut as an award-winning jazz piano prodigy, his transformation into a swinging London Hammond Organ player via his groups’ The Steampacket and Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity whose blend of jazz, R&B and pop idioms saw him credited as one of the earliest protagonists of jazz fusion, that reputation was further enhanced via his flagship 70s group Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express. The 90s saw Brian hailed as the ‘godfather of acid jazz’, this Grammy Nominee is also the proud recipient of a US Congressional Certificate of Special Recognition for his ‘contribution to the American art form of Jazz’ and is championed by several generations of musicians and fans.”
Respect to Soul Bank Records who compiled this monster set.
Organist Joey DeFrancesco passed away yesterday, leaving perhaps the most impressive background of any jazz organist in the past 20 years or so. Here is a list of artists he worked with: Miles Davis, Houston Person, John McLaughlin, David Sanborn, Arturo Sandoval, Larry Coryell, Frank Wess, Benny Golson, James Moody, Steve Gadd, Danny Gatton, Elvin Jones, Jimmy Cobb, George Benson, Pat Martino, Tony Monaco, John Scofield, Lee Ritenour, Joe Lovano, as well as session work with Ray Charles, Bette Midler, Janis Siegel, Diana Krall, Jimmy Smith, and Van Morrison. As I turned 52 a few days ago, it’s shocking to know that this prodigious talent was a year younger than me, and has disappeared from this Earth.
The album shared today is from 2019, and here is a blurb about it from his Bandcamp site:
“As he’s made abundantly clear over the past 30 years, Joey DeFrancesco has plenty of soul. What most listeners probably haven’t spent much time pondering is that soul’s place in the universe. On his adventurous new album, In The Key Of The Universe, the master organist turns his musical attentions to his spiritual side, tapping into a strain of metaphysical jazz that’s fueled sonic searchers for more than half a century. Joey D calls upon disciples and missionaries of jazz to join him in paving the way to enlightenment.”
Rest in peace, and memory eternal.
Big John Patton was a legendary jazz keyboardist and master of the Hammond B-3 organ. This session, released by Nilva Records originally, was criminally hidden away, but thanks to Jazz Room Records, it’s getting not only a second life, but it’s led to a further appreciation of Patton’s abilities. A killer groove-laden album, indeed.
No matter how ardent a collector of music you are, there are going to be some brilliant artists and albums you will miss. One could say that that’s part of the fun of discovering music. Credit for our surprise gem of the day goes squarely to Bandcamp’s blog, where Ashawnta Jackson penned an article on soul jazz. One of the names mentioned was a lovely lady, Shirley Jackson, whom you see depicted in the cover art and her weapon of choice, a Hammond B-3 organ.
Jackson’s back story is impressive, as is how she came to focus on the organ. Let us let Ashawnta tell the story, quoting from her article which you can read in full here:
Organist Shirley Scott is another soul jazz pioneer. She played both piano and trumpet as a child (it was actually her trumpet playing that earned her a scholarship in the ninth grade), but switched to the organ at 18. After playing piano in clubs in and around her hometown of Philadelphia in the mid ‘50s, she began concentrating solely on the organ in 1955. As Scott told Janis Stockhouse and Wayne Enstice in the book Jazzwomen: Conversations with Twenty-one Musicians, the switch was very much a reflection of the times: “This is when Jimmy Smith and Bill Dogget were making the organ very, very special.” Organists like Smith, Dogget, and Wild Bill Davis were making an impact, not just on the jazz world, but on Scott’s trajectory. “I heard what they were doing with that instrument, [and] I wanted to play.” She would soon develop a sound that, while recognizing those influences, was solidly her own. Of Jimmy Smith, Scott noted that “his use of vibrato influenced my sound when I first started playing. […] We may have used the same registrations, but the thoughts are different, the improvisation is different.”
She is as good at improvising as Jimmy Smith or Wild Bill Davis, and I’d venture to say that her sound would eventually inspire bands like the James Taylor Quartet or Medeski, Martin & Wood. A true legend, and a fine reissue.