Who is your favorite B3 player and, how has he/she afeected

frank rogers · Post by **frank rogers** » 3 Feb 2001 8:21 am

Any thoughts or musings? My favorites are Jimmy Smith, Captain Jack, and Joey DeFrancesco. Definitely inspirational with their "big chords" and tasty "single note" passages, reminiscent of the great C6th steel giants.[This message was edited by frank rogers on 03 February 2001 at 09:11 PM.]

frank rogers · Post by **frank rogers** » 3 Feb 2001 8:23 am

Sorry for the spelling error on the topic. BTW, how can those be fixed?

Brandin · Post by **Brandin** » 3 Feb 2001 8:56 am

I love Sir Julian's "Movin' At Midnight".

Mike Dennis · Post by **Mike Dennis** » 3 Feb 2001 9:37 am

The Hammond B is my favorite instrument. I have a 1937 BC with a big boy Leslie 31H . We had to replace the older crackling pre amp with a Treck II electronics unit. I had the Leslie updated for both chorale and tremolo speeds. The organ honks.

My first introduction to the instrument was in the early 1960's. My grandmother was a member of Medinah Country Club in northern Illinois. They had a B3 with Leslie 122 in the lobby outside the dining room. One of the caretakers use to play... he was very good... and I was mesmerized by the sound of it.

I too like Joey DeFrancesco...
One of my favorite players is Howard Wales... from the album "Hooteroll?" with Jerry Garcia. Howard attacks the instrument like no other and pulls out every whistle, stomp and honk possible during a performance.

I do like emulating organ sounds when playing the steel guitar. I currently use a Motion Sound Pro 3T which is set up pretty close to the sound of a Leslie 45. I reset the horn speed to rotate a bit slower in both the chorale and tremolo settings. I only use the horn... and bypass the low rotor setting completely with steel. I use the line out of my amplifier to the Motion Sound input. It comes with a foot switch for fast and slow. The motion Sound unit has a tube pre amp with it's own volume and tone control.

Playing chimes sounds great on the unit when using the chorale speed... and for full chording set to tremolo... you can get your famous organ sound.

Great for swing and blues players.

[This message was edited by Mike Dennis on 03 February 2001 at 09:47 AM.]

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 3 Feb 2001 11:50 am

I always liked Jimmy McGriff.

Bob Hempker · Post by **Bob Hempker** » 3 Feb 2001 12:44 pm

Jimmy Smith and Groove Holmes. Billy Preston plays great, too. There used to be a lady in Erie, Pennsylvania that played an old Wurlitzer organ that knocked me out. I don't remember her name. This was back in the early 70's. We were staying at the Holiday Inn. I sat in there for 2 solid nights and listened to her. She sang like Nancy Wilson. I went back a couple years later, and she was still there. Do any of you folks from that area know who I'm referring to? She could actually play and make a drum machine groove.

------------------
[This message was edited by Bob Hempker on 03 February 2001 at 12:48 PM.]

Jerry Gleason · Post by **Jerry Gleason** » 3 Feb 2001 1:51 pm

Jack McDuff
Jimmy Smith
Jimmy McGriff
Gooove Holmes
Charles Earland
Lonnie Smith... All great players. My favorite has always been Jack McDuff, just because his groups have always had just the right amount of "grease" for soulful playing.

It's a dying art, unfortunately, just like certain styles of steel playing. Joey DeFrancesco is the one younger guy that's really carrying the torch for that style. He's sort of a synthesis of all the guys mentioned above. Larry Goldings is another young player that's doing some good things.

As a jazz guitarist, playing behind a good B3 player (especially one that can kick bass on the pedals) is a joy like no other. Too bad there isn't anybody like that in this town now. I'd be in groove heaven.

I have stacks of those old Blue Notes with Jimmy Smith and all the others, and I've listened to that style for so long, that I'm sure it's rubbed off on my C6th playing.

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 3 Feb 2001 4:43 pm

Brother Jack Mc Duff has just left us.! RIP
Jimmy Smith + Phil Upchurch played in Andorra (round my neck of the woods!)a few years back, it was Great!
Jimmy Smith + Kenny Burrel were my favorites.
Steel grindin' that organ...

Rich Paton · Post by **Rich Paton** » 3 Feb 2001 8:26 pm

Jimmy McGriff. Jimmy Smith. Paul Bryant. Burkley Kendrix. And the cat who played on the 60's Bossa Nova tune, "Summer Samba". That was the cleanest, most tone-rich Hammond I've heard, just beautiful.
For a more blues-based Hammond player, Mike Finnegan has graced many tunes with his B-3 studio work...his playing is very soulful and great chops.
I can't leave out one dude who left us kids with some great childhood musical memories, the House Organist who worked the roller rink in Florham Park, N.J. It was just a stone's throw away from NYC, and most pro musicians of the area had lots of "irons in the fire". No doubt he played some cool jazz gigs as well. He was one hot, funky cat on that Hammond rig.

Andy Greatrix · Post by **Andy Greatrix** » 4 Feb 2001 6:33 am

If you can ever find a record of Henry Mancini called "Walk on the Wild Side.'(Not the Lou Reed song.)Along with the Mancini orchestra score is Jimmy smith, Kenny Burrel, and Shelly Mann. It cooks like a mother.(pun intended).

It would make a killer C6th tune.
All the best,-Andy

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 4 Feb 2001 8:29 am

I dig the sound of a B3 too! As a couple have already stated, it's a lost art (almost!) Jimmy Smith was one of my favorites, and he was amazing...almost explosive, at times. His version of the Dizzy Gillespie song "The Champ" is one honkin' tune! I would have really loved to hear someone like Chalker or Emmons do that tune.

Like Jack Stoner, I also like Jimmy McGriff. His playing is smooth and effortless, quite laid-back when compared to Smith. Jimmy's album "Georgia On My Mind" is really an essential for any organ enthusiast...all great tunes, and done with taste and precision.

Joey DeFrancesco...well, he's the "new kid" on the block. His playing is also smooth, but his real signature is those 32nd and 64th note clusters and arpeggios he throws into simple tunes. His speed is blistering, at times. And then, he'll just back off and play "lounge style". It's really good to see him carrying on this great instrument.

Oh, and by the way, the guy who did "Summer Samba" was Walter Wanderly. He really had a nice "right foot", too. His "gutting" technique was just like Chalker's (that explosive "swell" that accented the beginning of most chords). I had the album (Summer Samba) but gave it to an organist friend of mine. "Summer Samba" was the best tune on the album, by far.

Robert · Post by **Robert** » 4 Feb 2001 8:59 am

Only a little surprised at this thread. A lot of people here with "big ears" - did anybody mention Booker T. Jones or Shirley Scott? The latter may have been married to Stanley Turrentine, at any rate, they played together for years. All the rest: Smith, McGriff, McDuff, Holmes . . . that's some of my favorite stuff. Maybe I'm playing some of the chords on steel, but I'm not trying to emulate the sound, really. Jimmie Vaughan nailed it on "Hillbillies From Outer Space" - playing steel through a Leslie and playing "organ" riffs. You might think it WAS an organ . . . [This message was edited by Robert on 04 February 2001 at 09:02 AM.]

John Steele (deceased) · Post by **John Steele (deceased)** » 4 Feb 2001 10:59 am

I vote for Jack McDuff too.
His album(s) with pianist Gene Harris (i.e. Downhome Blues) are the greasiest most soulful blues playing around. Sadly, both Jack and Gene left us this year.
I'll sure miss Gene.
-John

Rick Schmidt · Post by **Rick Schmidt** » 4 Feb 2001 11:23 am

I remember one of the things that got me into steel in the first place was hearing Don Buzzard play "Whiter Shade of Pale" through a Leslie. Even now I still think of my old aged, wood necked Sho Bud as being somehow akin to a B3. I never try to emulate the Leslie sound at all with effects & a real one would be a pain, so I just appreciate the sound of the real B3 players like Jimmy & Lonnie Smith, Brother Jack, Joey D., et al.[This message was edited by Rick Schmidt on 04 February 2001 at 11:30 AM.]

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 4 Feb 2001 11:41 am

Rick, the organist you're thinking of is Walter Wanderly, a great Brazillian B-3 player whose music is too often lumped in the easy-listening category. This guy could swing like mad. To my ears, he reproduced the syncopated Bossa Nova nylon string guitar sound on B-3. Check out his work with Astrud Gilberto.

McDuff gets my vote too as well as Richard "Groove" Holmes whose swinging version of "Misty" is an all-time classic.
I saw McDuff & DeFrancisco playing "dueling" B-3's about 7 years ago at a club in Boston. Talk about fireworks! Though DeFrancisco had the chops and knowledge of harmony, McDuff smoked him with his soulful feeling and fewer, but perfectly placed notes.[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 04 February 2001 at 11:41 AM.]

frank rogers · Post by **frank rogers** » 4 Feb 2001 12:16 pm

Yes, there's just something powerful about the way the B3 players "attack" those big chord "turnarounds" and then bring things down to a whisper, just before a frenetic single note passage. The C6th tuning, especially in the hands of the masters, just seems to evoke that same "tension" and energy.

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 4 Feb 2001 12:31 pm

In today's (Newark NJ) Star Ledger there is a review of Jimmy Smith's new CD. It says that it's a return to the old sound. Got 4 stars, it's called "Dot Com Blues" on the Blue Thumb label.

Two years ago at a county Jazz Fest (Union,NJ held in Cranford)Bernard "Pretty" Purdie put together a pick-up band for the show on Sunday. It included Cornell DuPree, David "Fathead" Newman, and Jimmy McGriff.

Backstage I was talking to McGriff, he was standing with a cane, and when it was time to play, they helped him up the rear ramp to the stage to the B3. I was wondering if he would be able to play since he looked so frail, but once he got behind the keyboard and the music started he was moving like a child. It was a great day.

------------------
Regards, Craig[This message was edited by Craig Stock on 04 February 2001 at 12:33 PM.]

Tim Rowley · Post by **Tim Rowley** » 4 Feb 2001 11:40 pm

In the college city of Ann Arbor, MI, some thirty years ago, lived the notorious "Skip" VanWinkle. I'm not saying that ol' Skip was my favorite player, not by a long shot. But he was well known at the time, a decent player, and a lot of fun to watch. Skip was one-half of the rock group "Teagarden and VanWinkle" who had a minor hit back in about 1970.

Skip's road instrument was actually a cut-down C3 Hammond, covered with black plywood and metal edging to "protect" it while traveling. But it was so skinned up and beat that you could only see about half of the flat-black paint and several pieces of the metal edging had been torn out by the roots. I believe it had black pipe legs on it. After the stagehands would set it all up on stage, Skip used to go around with a spool of haywire and some pliers and brace everything up, all the while muttering something like "I'd hate for this heavy old S.O.B. to fall on me during the show". The pedal rack had no paint nor varnish left on it, because Skip always played in cowboy boots. For a swell pedal he had a "Moon" accelerator pedal for a race car, hooked up with a cable. To control his four old Leslie cabinets he used a regular clutch cable (yeah, the kind you used to see on self-propelled farm machinery and self-unloading trucks) hooked to a bracket on the lower left of the console. What a sight.

But when the show kicked off, he started scrambling all over that organ like an ape in a circus. Rockin' and rollin', cowboy boots just dancing over the pedals, and volume up the Kazoola. Fingers a-workin' them drawbars, good harmonic work for a white boy, and when it came time to kick the Leslies in he would grin at the drummer and reach down and give that clutch cable a pull. Plus he sang either lead vocal or harmony on almost all the songs. Really something to watch, and offstage Skip was as soft-spoken a person as I've ever met.

I saw Skip again at an outdoor concert at MSU in 1972 or 1973. No more organ, this time he was playing an electric piano as a sideman in a different band. He had even gotten a haircut and a shave. But he could sure make that piano jump and when they turned him loose on a solo he stole the show just like he did with that clunky old Hammond!

How did this affect my steel playing? Who knows? I hadn't started playing steel yet back then. On a certain song nowdays I might do a little organ effect on the steel. But I sure do like the sound of a steel and a B3 playing together. Maybe some of these days I'll hunt up ol' Skip, if he's still living, and we'll jam a little. If it sounds good enough maybe he will want to cut a record and go on tour. Maybe he's already famous by now. Maybe he's dead. Hmmmmm...

Tim R.

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 5 Feb 2001 1:22 am

Trust me - Skip is alive and well in L.A. I had him in my studio last year and he was kicking FUNKY bass w/BOTH feet,so instead of a volume pedal - he had a piece of 3/4" galvanized conduit pipe on 2 VERY homemade brackets hooked up to a volume pot and rigged across the back of his lower keyboard. And for volume swells,he could roll it back and forth with the heel of his left hand-no matter where on the keybord his hand was. And to keep his hand from slipping off the pipe,he put a length of rough textured garden hose on it.Lookin' good Skip... A great concept actually-I've thought of building a slicker version and trying it on steel so I could play both feet on the pedals. For those who don't know,Skip kicks better bass than most bass players you'll ever play with. -MJ-

Rich Paton · Post by **Rich Paton** » 7 Feb 2001 11:15 pm

Thanks all on the W.Wanderly info.
And speaking of Booker T. Jones and Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy had an early 90's album with a cover of "Hip-Hug-Her", which is absolutely cool & funky.