The most majestic sounding instrument ever created. Societies should treat old hammond organs like they treat ancient artifacts. They need to be preserved and maintained so people in the future can hear it forever
Absolutely. Billy, Keith, Goldy, Vinnie Crane...lots! But, I think this is more of the influencers rather than the influence. Oh well. Good to know there are those who know of Billy Preston and folks of his trade.
Then, of course, the late Earl Grant was a notable Hammond player from the 50s. And there was Jimmie Smith, Ethel Smith (no relation to Ethel), ... oh, heck, too many to name - and not all of them named Smith.
My Mother was a professional musician. she owned a B3, a A100, and a Grande The B3 only had 1 service call in over 25 years of service. Amazing since it was constantly being moved. The Grande sat at home and always had some problem. Can't beat the tone generator and a leslie highboy.
Been in love with the sound of the Hammond since I was 15 years old. I was lucky enough to own a C3 at one point but had to get rid of it when I got divorced. To me these guys, Keith Emerson, Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Richard Groove Holmes, Joey DeFrancesco and, ladies, Barbara Dennerlein, are and have been heroes my whole life. Tx for this upload.
Great! The B 3 Hammond Organ. Bought mine in 1970 for 5,283 dollars and still have it. First thing I ever bought coming out of the Vietnam war. I was 22 years old and loved Jimmy Smith. Larry Young, Brian Auger.
My father had a Hammond & Leslie, in his house, in the late 40's. i remember musician friends coming over on Sundays to jam. Everybody loved that sound. Also, don't forget Milt Buckner, Brother Jack Mcduff & Ethel Smith.
Who can forget the heavy Hammond sound in Gimme some Lovin' by The Spencer Davis group? That was , I believe, the first time the organ was used in a rock song with that super beefy sound it produced in that song. In Karn Evil 9 Third Impression by Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Keith Emerson, by far, wrote the absolute best Hammond solo ever, with that beefy, aggressive sound. He pushed it to the limit, as he did everything he touched in keyboards.
I'm more a pianist than an organist, but any opportunity i get to play a Hammond of any model, i take it. First played one in church at the age of 12 or 13, and i've been hooked ever since!
I was going to comment, "I hope they don't go through the whole short documentary WITHOUT mentioning Ethel Smith!" - and RIGHT at the moment that I started to realize they weren't going to mention Ethel Smith, the narrator MENTIONS ETHEL SMITH! & briefly shows her in action. Some of her music videos showcasing her work have been available on youtube since youtube started in '05, thankfully. She was as an electric a talent as was the amazing Hammond Organs she rythmically played on! Thanks for the upload.
The late, great Goldy McJohn, of Steppenwolf, on "Magic Carpet Ride", and Al Kooper on Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" are both outstanding examples of the amazing Hammond at it's best usage.
I would've anticipated Keith Emerson being prominently featured in a HAMMOND Organ retrospective. He was referred to as the Jimi Hendrix of the organ. I saw him TRASH his Hammond organ while performing Rondo with ELP. Awe inspiring!
There's so many great players. I think they were focusing on the hallmarks that made it a staple in music, so you have to get to at least Jimmy Smith, and then Booker T was just one of the ones plucked off a list of styles that grew from there. Procal Haram was picked not because of virtuosity, but because the line is so recognizable. And I think the Greg Rollie thing from Santana was shown at Woodstock, I think, to point out that the Hammond was there at seminal moments in music history. Emerson was amazing and groundbreaking, no doubt, just harder to quantify in a 5 second sound byte.
@@sottoblue6510 I agree with your assessment. However, there's NO doubt that Keith Emerson revolutionized the use of the Hammond organ and elevated it to a lead instrument in his hands. IF the video had even a mention of him with a still photograph, it would be sufficient as well as an acknowledgement of his contributions to the genre.
Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, Charles Earland, Charles Kynard, Lonnie Smith, Leon Spencer...all worth your time if you love the Hammond. The mod/beat scene had a lot of it, too. :)
The grandfather of a friend of mine invented the Clavinet (and the Pianet as well) while working at the Hohner company. He is over 90 now and still invents new stuff. They should make a documentary about him and the Clavinet as well, me thinks. Afterall, it had significant impact on the sound of funk, r&b and soul.
Grace Potter said was inspired to play the B3 by Billy Preston. RIP Billy,you were one of the best ! Grace loves her B3 and always does many classic rock covers including a smoking cover of Cortez the Killer with Joe Satrani !.
I love the sound of the B-3 with dual Leslie cabinets. The sound utilized by Roger Smith from Tower of Power. The percussive touch was really outstanding.
Just try carrying one of these around from venue to venue! As a roadie during the 70’s, I nearly snapped my back in half moving this thing around.... but the sound was worth it! Thanks for the video 👍
@@RishonaCampbell Rarely that was the case... Actually it was pure roadie muscle power, and when a venue had no elevator or escalator, trying to carry a B3 or the heavier B2 up one or two flights of stairs was enough to pop you eyes from their sockets
Wow! I've never seen this before. Always loved the sound of the B-3 but folks, if you've worked the small rooms and the keyboardist played a B-3, you hated helping him move it after the gig!! That was wonderful and thanks for posting it. Best.
LOL ! 😂 That’s the truth ! The band I was in during the mid 80s through the late nineties was blessed with an amazing keyboardist ; who had a Hammond B3 & Leslie speaker setup ! Did I mention that we had practice in his basement ?! 😮😅 We both loved and dreaded getting gigs to play ! 😁
The Fender Stratocaster was made legendary by Jimi Hendrix. The Hammond geniuses were obviously Jimmy Smith, etc etc. However, as a legendary LEAD Musical instrument, the Hammond was taken into Legend by Keith Emerson.
Great to have this History. First fell in love with a Church Pipe Organ. One had to pump the bellows for sound. As young teenagers this was cool. Owned my first Hammond, a Spinet in 1969. Bought my Hammond Porta B 1974. Played it with 2 Leslies. Really Great sounds. Still record with it in my studio. Can be heard on my CDs. Great History. Jimmy Smith was the Man!!!along with Shirley Scott. Reggae great Organist, Jackie Mittoo made that sound a must have at any reputable Studio. My Porta B for a while can be heard on Hits Produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry at Black Ark Studio 1976-1977. The sound of the Hammond Organ has been on many Reggae hits including those of Bob Marley.
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="727">12:07</a>-<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="736">12:16</a> the reason i started learning hammond, gotta love Santana at woodstock
This is so interesting! I just went to a live concert where the Delvon LaMarr Trio was playing -- they are a band out of Seattle -- Delvon plays the Hammond, and it was this big wooden beauty of an instrument. He was so good on it that I became interested in it - your video is so cool with the old footage - thanks for posting this!
In the late 60's I & a few others formed a folk rock band in our local church. We performed the Sunday noon mass, after our 4th Sunday we had the church packed, standing room only with about 800 people. The church had this huge Hammond organ with a Lesley that stood over 6' tall & the big foot pedal things. We loved the sound of that organ. We had the whole church bopin, Jump ahead about 3 months, we arrive at the church to find that our beloved Hammond was sold & replaced by a fancy electric piano by the churches choir director. We were pissed to say the least, we were never consulted, nor did we here any talk about replacing it. It was our service that packed people in, not the choirs service.
Agreed! He really was the master of the Hammond B3 organ. There is a magnificent album you might like to listen to: THE DYNAMIC DUO- Jimmy Smith with Wes Montgomery, Beautiful.
Played many Hammond Organs & they are a dream to enjoy. I play Pipe Organs & Concert Grands...became a Headliner in Night Clubs & Theater Clubs & Broadway. Those were all great times & still moonlight. Great RU-vid here. Thanks.
I grew up with the B-3, then the D--152 (also a chord organ and an Extravoice) as my father was Shay Torrent, first organist for the White Sox and, when they were created, the Angels. Had two PR-40 speakers. Later we got a G-100, their attempt at a tab-type church organ - had antiphonal speakers in bedrooms, etc., later moved it to a church. But the D was my favorite, since it had all the 32 pedals for Bach. Later, with a Skilsaw, a crazy electrical genius friend and a lot of chutzpah, he cut 4 Hammonds into a four-manual organ-plus-synthesizer thing, designed to be unbuckled and carried about on his concert tours (he was now in his 80's) in their motor home. I loved every minute spent on and listening to the wonderful tones of the Hammond.
We just bought a new house and it had an old Hammond M down in the den. The previous owner said it didn't work and he couldn't even give it away. He was going to haul it to the dump before we moved in. I told him to leave it. After a few days of oiling, it fired up! So far, everything works but one bass pedal and it's got one dry bearing I need to track down. I suppose I should learn how to play the organ now.
Lucky you. A friend told me a story about a guy who went to a garage sale and bought an electric guitar for $5.00. The guitar was given to the homeowner's son as a gift, and I guess he lost interest and left it behind when he went off to college. Turned out it was a Fender Stratocaster.
Big C What's so special about a Strat? I guess the fact that he paid 5 dollars but I guarantee it wasn't an oversight. Probably a made in Mexico or Asia Stratocaster.
The Hammond company should also be given great credit for reducing registration to the drawbar system, and for building these things really well. Most are still running. And the keyboard action is still the best in the business, something the 1960s imitators simply could not get right.
In the 80's you could pick up a used Hammond organ for a less than $1000, especially the C3 whose solid panels made it just a little harder to gig with. I knew about electrical circuitry and worried that buying an instrument that might be over 20 years old was a bad investment. The new keyboard I bought for nearly two grand was obsolete in five years and the company that made them went under. Hammonds are still going strong. Oops.
@cindykrista New can also be better. Today's emulators can create nearly any sound and still have enough power left enough room on the computer for a complete mixing station.
@cindykrista I'm not trying to get into an argument, I think analog and digital have their places. Sound reinforcement is way out of my wheelhouse but I've heard both great digital rooms and lousy analog ones and vice versa. Back in the day tape was the best you could do for home (yes, better than vinyl) but most people couldn't afford reel-to-reel decks or metal cassette decks, let alone the few pre-recorded reel-to-reel albums out there. They just had cheap walkman knockoffs or 8-Track players in their cars that sounded as bad as they were cheap. Today more people have access to better sound than ever, including a reviving vinyl market. If only record companies stopped over-compressing the life out of it. BTW, that keyboard I passed up a B3 for was an ARP 2600 analog synth. A lot of fun to play but not a practical thing to use in a small band.
@cindykrista My ARP 2600 was no lightweight at around 60lbs. I know that's only 1/5th of a B3 but remember it the next time you run into that old video of Edgar Winter wearing the 2600's 20+lb keyboard section like a guitar. Yes, I thought about putting a guitar strap on mine and no, I wasn't that dumb. Just sitting it on my lap made my legs sore. 😉😁
@cindykrista I stare at the guts of a Hammond and think if someone is good at restoring the old mechanical pinball machines they'd have a good shot at figuring out the guts of a Hammond organ. To me they are both very electro-mechanical whirly-jig hoojackapivvies. I love them both :)
One of the greatest of all time is Maestro Richard “Groove” Holmes. There is a reason he is called “Groove.” His feel is so beautifully aggressive especially when he is playing the Blues. His left hand Bass playing was so metronomically steady and inventive. In my opinion, no organist has ever swung so ferociously. Joey DeFrancesco has a similar hard “take no prisoners” feel in his playing. The Hammond is just a wonder.
Nothing better than a ripping jazz set with a killer real B3, guitar and tenor sax going off in a small club. I've been to Chicago many times and listened to the local B3 players, there's a blind black guy Chris Foreman that plays at Andys that is really great, and yes there's a lot of guys in the audience that are obsessed with the B3.
Let's not forget the German organist Klaus Wunderlich who sold more than 20 million lp and cd's almost worldwide. It is a pity that he switched from Hammond to Wersi in the seventies. His early Hammond lp's (the fifties and sixties) are the best, at least that's my opinion.
The sound of the Hammond with the Leslie speaker cabinet is still rocking the music world. Truly an electro - mechanical marvel The lubrication system is very cool
hate to say, the Hammond model goes back to 1933. I worked at a music store and we got one in and had an inspection date of October 3, 1933. it was a model A serial number 320 built by the Hammond Clock Company. I worked at the music store as an electornic technician for 15 years.i have worked on many Hammond organs and other organs out there. just my 2 cents worth.
I have a Hammond H-111 that is...currently... not functional. A so-called "technician" came to my house to repair it...and that was last June! The unit needed [arts, and he "thought" he had them when he made his return trip. Instead, he needed to take one of the main units out of the cabinet because it supposedly needed to have all of the capacitors tested... which he could only do in his shop. When he returned to my house, he had to take TWO units back to his shop. He then started to come up with all sorts of excuses as to why he was not finished! One was that the area where he had his shop had been flooded and thus he supposedly could not get into the shop. THAT WAS LAST AUTUMN! I still do not have the "units" back, and he keeps coming up with excuses. Now, I know that the H-111 is old, and that parts might be hard to find. However, we are no going on 8 months since our first phone conversation. Is this unreasonably long? Is it true that some of the parts...such as capacitors...are very hard to find? By the way, the so-called "technician is located in Vermont, and I am in New Hampshire. Do you know of anyone in this area who can help me? The guy still has my units!
I've repaired a total of five Leslie's over the years. One, was modified by an engineering prof from Georgia Tech, Dr. W. Marshall Leach. He had passed away by the time I received the Leslie for repair, there were no included schematics, so I contacted Georgia Tech's engineering department. That, was a blast! The short story is, there are more "Leach Leslie's" out there, treasure them, because I don't believe they'll ever be equaled!
Paul TheSkeptic >>> I saw LS at the Boom Boom Room in San Francisco, and you’re right... he did not disappoint. He has a more open drawbar style that is unusual amongst jazzers.
progjazzfusion >>> Yes Larry Young had an incredible pure tone that is very hard to describe but beautiful. The first song I was aquatinted with was “African Blues” off the *Young Blues* album. (Sept 30, 1960- Englewood Cliffs, NJ) What a hell of an album! “Nica’s Dream” another favorite of mine. Thanks for mentioning him... I just had to dust off the CD & give it a spin right now! 😎
this was a very educational video from the standpoint that I played along side many Hammonds to this day...and i always had this secret desire to play well. This coming from a drummer.
A friend of mine has a classic "Split" C3 painted black and covered in Dymo stickers that formerly belonged to Pete Bardens of Camel. It's a true monster. Part of the sound is that as they get older, the tone wheels "bleed" so you get this underlying tone coming through that only the old ones give, that result in this "dirty" or even "filthy" rock Hammond sound.
Just to set the record straight on terminology, the Leslie speaker does not implement VIBRATO. It actually provides TREMOLO. There is a vibrato setting on the B3 - but not through the Leslie. Vibrato is frequency (pitch) modulation. Tremolo is amplitude (volume or amplitude) modulation. The spinning horns change the amplitude - NOT the frequency.... It is common to use the Vibrato setting (through the B3 signal) to the Leslie (adding tremolo). Just sayin' - the professionals should know this.
Youre right, and good catch that the leslie does tremolo, but you still get the slight doppler effect with the top horns as well as tremolo. So it kinda sounds like a slight pitch modulation, which is why the sound is so popular, dont you think? I still have to find a video on how Leslie got this radical idea in the first place.
@@TuneStunnaMusic Your remark about the doppler effect is correct; it _does_ provide a subtle shift in pitch as the horns move closer to the listener and subsequently further away. In fact, there is both pitch, phase, and volume modulation when the Leslie rotates, and that is what gives the Leslie its unique sound.
my super reverb has tremolo, my Stratocaster has vibrato. I've owned Leslie 16"s & 18"s the Vibratone I think it's called. playing through mahogany cab 122 I think was the model, is a whole lotta different (ha) In the top, the horn spinning only has sound coming from half of it. the other side of horn is dummy, to Accentuate Doppler/Phase shift. on bottom, speaker 15'' is static with vented cover that spins opposite direction. at different speeds, with a ramp up and down effect... it all comes together to make not a trem or vibrato, but a Leslie effect is it not?
@@TuneStunnaMusic -- I read that Laurens Hammond said "I never intended for my organ to sound like that.". Too bad, dude... it's ruled for 70+ years I gather...
When you're a professional musician (other than organ) and you show up at a gig with a B3 player, it's like landing on another planet. The organ has command of the universe. Sure it plays the bass, rhythm, comping, and melody, all in about thirteen different voices. But then it adds all those rumbles, swells, crashes, explosions, barks and all that other stuff we love. Us poor solo instrumentalists sit on the side and wait for the organ player to have lunch so we can solo. After the concert, people go home and talk about "That guy that played the heck out of the organ. And I think there was another guy on stage too". Thanks, Mr Hammond
"On the inside, most speakers don't have moving parts." The Voice coil, and the diaphragm, aren't moving? If they didn't move, we couldn't hear anything! You are right, the spinning stuff inside a Leslie Speaker is pretty DAMN impressive! steve
Lord usually played a C-3, not a B-3, but they are the same organ except for the wooden cabinet. He also didn't use a Leslie that much, but would often run it through a Fender Twin Reverb or a Marshall. Trivia: he got the "C" he toured with from Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac back when. :-)
Thank you so much for this. full of historical facts about an instrument just as iconic as a fender strat. only a Hammond sounds like a Hammond...……………………………..awesome!
I taught myself to play a B-3 beginning in 1956. I was 16. I worked in the summers at an entertainment pier in Galveston called the Pleasure Pier. They had two B-3s so when the hired organists weren't using them, I was. Until about 10 years ago, I had played the Hammond and piano, often together, professionally. I wish I had one now. In this piece, the organist in the church beats the tar out of the Hammond, and is constantly messing with the draw bars. I wish he would watch the end of the piece where Jimmy Smith is playing. Notice that he honors the keyboards and he doesn't continue messing with the draw bars. Maybe that has a lot to do with why he is universally known as the King of the Hammond.
IMHO it ain't real rock and roll without a B3. Period. I can easily hear Jimmy Smith's influence in Deep Purple's Lazy. But I never made the connection until just now. Amazing.
For a genius, Laurens Hammond was sure stubborn at times. I wonder what would have happened to the Hammond company if they went into partnership with Leslie. Some organs even had output jacks that were incompatible with Leslie speakers so that they couldn’t be used. Still, nothing can come close to the original genuine Hammond sound and electronic organs like the Vox Continental and Wurlitzers which sound like they have laryngitis compared to a Lesliefied B3.
The Hammond most likely is the first "portable" synthesizer. Hammond like Rhodes, are names of legendary instruments loved by us all. And the Leslie speaker, like the digital effect pedals used on the Rhodes Piano, has only enhanced a great sounding instrument even more.
When inventors and musicians collide, sometimes great things happen. Another great musical instrument developer was NOT a player... I'm sure you've heard of Leo Fender. Very cool stuff. I encourage anyone out there to salvage old instruments that you find, and get them a new home with someone who will enjoy them. I've saved a few Pianos, and it's wonderful to hear them played by their new owners.
Shirley Scott made some really nice jazz music on her B3, as of course, Jimmy Smith was the KING of jazz organ, 'Scotty" was pretty good too. Thank you, Mr. Hammond.
When I was 7 in June of 1959, a big wooden device was brought into our home and I was told that I could play it but I had to wash my hands and take off my shoes. Mom played by ear and that C-3 was finally sold in 2005 one year after mom died. I sold it on ebay. It went from Wisconsin to Louisiana and to my surprise, the guy that bought it didn't even want the tone cabinet. He fixed them up and he said it went to a church. He was surprised how good the wood was and I told him that was because I had to wash my hands and take off my shoes before I touched it. Now every time I see a band play I look to see if they have a Hammond.
When I was 8 in July of 1960, a big wooden box was brought into our home and I was told not open it. My mother told me that my grandpa was sleeping inside and had come to live with us from now on.
The Hammond X66 was the first organ combining two technologies: tone wheel generators and solid state transistor electronic oscillators. Unforgettable and unique organ.
I’m a guitar player by trade. It’s my main passion and always will be. But I also own 3 hammonds....a b3, a c2 and an a100. There’s something completely unique and living about the Hammond organ. It’s the steam locomotive of modern musical instruments. There’s a certain magic to the sights, smells and transcendent sounds that can be matched by no other instrument. You have this whirling, breathing thing in front of you and this beautiful, spinning speaker next to you. There’s no other experience like it in music...it’s very, VERY easy to get bitten by that bug.
Until recently. I owned a Hammond RT 3. I wanted to learn how to play it, but I am a terribly undisciplined musician. I ended up selling it to an African-American church where I know it will put to good use. It finally went home!
I have an RT3 hooked up to Leslie 147 and a PR40 It came out of a cathederal in NE of UK, It's got pride of place in my studio now. I still have to pinch myself when I look at it. Sounds awesome!!.. @@mattwalsh9413
Cool video, I miss my B3, it got stolen in the late 80’s along with my Leslie 800 .. but never fear Hammond now has a B3 app for the iPad that sounds just as good as it did .. only thing missing is the waterfall keys :)
I used to service Hammonds in the 1970's and still love the things. Rock bands hauled the 400 plus pound organs all over the world. The local Hammond dealer didn't like working with Rock n Roll bands and I filled in that gap.
