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The other Instruments |
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and Glenn Hardman, because they were accompanied by jazz soloists, gave them a brighter jazz aura than their somewhat corny styles deserved. The Hammond organ (and, on some very early records, the pipe organ) made an ideal medium for Fats Waller, who in the last three years of his life employed it for several swingingly tranquil solos on original instrumentals and, perhaps even more effectively, on ballads.
Count Basie, who studied organ informally with Waller, has used it occasionally on records since 1939, generally for slow blues and always to pleasingly moody effect. Former jazz pianists who have enjoyed a vogue in the rhythm and blues field through the employment of a hard-driving, voluminous approach to the electric organ include "Wild Bill" Davis, who started this trend in 1950, Bill Doggett, whose records sold at least a million in 1956-7, Jackie Davis, and Milt Buckner. Among the more modern-oriented pianists who have occasionally indulged in manual and pedal experimentation at the organ are Hank Jones, Oscar Peterson and Mary Lou Williams. Hammond organs are standard equipment in providing the alternating romantic and jazz atmosphere at Harlem bars such as Count Basie's on Seventh Avenue, where another ex-pianist, Marlowe Morris, has revealed considerable proficiency.
The first attempt to bring the Hammond organ into the orbit of contemporary jazz was undertaken by Jimmy Smith. An extraordinary musician who makes fuller use than the other jazz organists of the variety of stops at his disposal, Smith plays fast-tempo jazz improvisations in a style that would have blended perfectly with Charlie Parker's combo had Smith risen to prominence during Parker s lifetime. Of the other modern jazz musicians who have experimented with the organ, Dick Hyman has exhibited an exceptional beat on the minority of his recorded solos not aimed at the commercial "pop" market.
The Baldwin organ, an instrument that boasts a far higher frequency range than the Hammond, has been featured by Les Strand, a Chicago musician who has elicited encouraging reactions from Duke Ellington, George Shearing and other no less authoritative listeners.
The flute has been obliged virtually to gate-crash its way |
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