Two Recordings that are a must have. Lou Donaldson's greatest hits vol I & vol II, I believe on Blue Note. Lonnie Smith on the B3, Donaldson on the alto, Blue Mitchell on trumpet. I think Charles Earland also plays the B3 on Vol II. Vol I is more straight ahead jazz a la Jimmy Smith, but Vol II gets downright funky, a great party disc. The recordings were made I believe in the late sixties, and they sound pretty good. I love the B3 sound. Also, if you don't have Jimmy Smith's The Sermon, get it. There's my two cents!!!
Regards,
Chris P. |
Love the Hammond B3!! Funkiest sound ever. Check out Shirley Scott's recordings. My favorites "Blue Flames" and "Soul Shouting" both with then husband the great Stanley Turrentine; both on Prestige. Sounds like you're a Jimmy Smith fan. If you don't have it already, "Prayer Meeting" also with Stanley Turrentine on Blue Note is my favorite. Great sound too. In a much more contemporary bag, Larry Goldings is one of the new B3 cats right now. Some of my favorite work of his is on Michael Brecker's "Time Is Of The Essence" on Verve (with Pat Metheny and Elvin Jones!!!)Cheers. |
I just picked up the Rudy Van Gelder version of Jimmy Smith's "The Sermon" and it is a must have ($8.99 on sale at Tower!!)
My favorite Hammond player is DAN WALL however....he is part of the ABERCROMBIE trio that has recorded four CD's in the last 10 years or so. All are fabulous if you like modern jazz/fusion featuring Abercrombie's guitar (it's not traditional jazz like with Jimmy Smith). The recording that is amazing is "Tactics" which is a live recording in which the dynamics cause my Bryston 4B-ST to clip more than just occasionally. "Open Land" is outstanding, more traditional sounding, but does not feature Wall that much.
Another fav is John McLaughlin, Elvin Jones!, and the italian guy on organ who is quite amazing... Joey DeFransesco..... entitled "Tribute to Coltrane" (something like that, not sure on title). Joey has an recent album out with Jimmy Smith I believe. |
Going from memory here, but I think there is (was?)a gent named Don Patterson who did some really good stuff. I listened to a lot of jazz in my misspent youth, and he was among the best. But you can't beat old Jimmy Smith. |
Abstract7,
(Curious moniker that.) Anyway, on my previous post I suggested Don Patterson. Take a look at wwww.800.com and do a search for him. They seem to have at least 6 reissues on CD of his work. I like him a lot, but he may not wind your clock. FWIW. |
Well, Jimmy Smith has a new release called "Dotcom Blues" that got a very nice review in the current (April) issue of Stereopiles. You should also listen to Jimmy McGriff's work, and an artist from the 1960's named Larry Young who did an album or two on Bluenote Records. Look at the following link for info about Young:
http://members.tripod.com/~hardbop/lyoung.html |
For those of you who are real Jimmy Smith fans, Mosiac released both an LP and CD set that included the complete 1957 Blue Note Sessions. These were produced by Alfred Lion, with the famous Rudy Van Gelder as engineer. Accompanying Jimmy was Eddie McFadden, (guitar), Lou Donaldson, Hank Mobley, Kenny Burrell, Donald Byrd and Art Blakey. No longer in print from Mosiac, keep an eye at EBAY, it is definitely worth snagging if you can find it. |
There's absolutely no doubt about the importance of Jimmy Smith. The Master. Before him, I recommend Wild Bill Davis (not Davison, who was a great cornet player) who knew how to "orchestrate" the sound of a B3. He's the guy who did the orginal arrangement of "April in Paris" that Basie copped. I finally found some Wild Bill from the 70s.."Impulsions" on Black and Blue and "All Right, OK, You win" on same label. This style of playing is also one of the reasons I like Joey DeFrancesco. He can also do the scrabblin' thing. Check out two of my favs..."Goodfellas" on Concord and "All or Nothing At All" on Big Mo. Wall and Goldings are also great. A little more on the 'purist' side rather than the 'fun' side. Just my 2 cents, of course. |
Absract7, Get some Jimmy McGriff. He does a lot of stuff with Hank Crawford and David "Fathead" Newman. My personnal favorite is titled " Blues Groove" Telarc Jazz. |
Thanks for the suggestions. I have more Hammond B stuff on order now than I currently own (great--now I have to find the time to listen to it). In particular--thank you Albert for making me salivate over something that is out of print: "I hate it when that happens" --I'll be looking on e-bay. |
Also try Fred Jackson, "Hootin' and Tootin' ", on Blue Note BLP-4094, or CD equivalent. Earl Van Dyke played a Hammond B on that session, I believe. |
