The Hammond Era − 20 June, 2005
There comes a point of crisis, a moment of transition.
I had been thinking about getting into keyboards. It was a natural progression for someone interested in jazz -- most of the jazz greats could not only play their own instruments, but also sit down at the piano and dash off a few tunes.
Problem is, I'm not into classical piano playing. I have seen too often that those who learn to sight read like robots or play by rote memorization die a horrible death the moment they are asked to improvise.
So I thought: who do I really admire on keys?
Chick Corea, McCoy Tyner, Horace Silver . . . pianists.
Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Charles Earland, Tony Monaco . . . organists.
Suddenly I realized how much more I liked the groove of the Hammond organ sound. It's an entirely different playing principle. The keys don't sustain unless you press them; the sound doesn't decay like piano notes; and the notes don't ring out if you play legato. (You have to really have a subtle hand at playing the notes -- too much relaxation and you sound staccato, too little relaxation and your notes string together at a constant volume level. There's a certain feel that's just right.)
Well, it took me a while to choose to get into organ, but the deciding point came on this day.
I had received a call from a hospital in Cambodia. My wife had one of her strange allergic reactions, passed out multiple times, banged her head multiple times, and was going to be medically evacuated from the country as soon as she was well enough to travel.
For me, it was almost like the end of life.
Music is where I turn when things get their darkest, and I knew -- to get me through these darkest hours, I needed something new to focus on, to keep my mind away from the downward spiral of worry.
I came home with the Hammond on this day. By the very next day, I'd recorded a cover of Jimmy Smith's "Back in the Chicken Shack". The day after that, I recorded the jazz standard "But Not For Me." Both songs I played pretty much by ear, having figured out the patterns of the keys and derived the shapes of the chords from music theory (I had no textbooks, just chutzpah).
By the third day, I was writing original, if simple, music using the organ. Just for you, dandelifers, I've uploaded a new track to my DMusic site -- this is a previously unreleased track called "Wicked", recorded on June 23, 2005.
[To hear this track, go to this page and look for the following line:
Comments on Wicked (Bonus Track) (LoFi HiFi) by Bruce H. McCosar
Click on the link that says "LoFi" or "HiFi" to play the song.]
I had been thinking about getting into keyboards. It was a natural progression for someone interested in jazz -- most of the jazz greats could not only play their own instruments, but also sit down at the piano and dash off a few tunes.
Problem is, I'm not into classical piano playing. I have seen too often that those who learn to sight read like robots or play by rote memorization die a horrible death the moment they are asked to improvise.
So I thought: who do I really admire on keys?
Chick Corea, McCoy Tyner, Horace Silver . . . pianists.
Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Charles Earland, Tony Monaco . . . organists.
Suddenly I realized how much more I liked the groove of the Hammond organ sound. It's an entirely different playing principle. The keys don't sustain unless you press them; the sound doesn't decay like piano notes; and the notes don't ring out if you play legato. (You have to really have a subtle hand at playing the notes -- too much relaxation and you sound staccato, too little relaxation and your notes string together at a constant volume level. There's a certain feel that's just right.)
Well, it took me a while to choose to get into organ, but the deciding point came on this day.
I had received a call from a hospital in Cambodia. My wife had one of her strange allergic reactions, passed out multiple times, banged her head multiple times, and was going to be medically evacuated from the country as soon as she was well enough to travel.
For me, it was almost like the end of life.
Music is where I turn when things get their darkest, and I knew -- to get me through these darkest hours, I needed something new to focus on, to keep my mind away from the downward spiral of worry.
I came home with the Hammond on this day. By the very next day, I'd recorded a cover of Jimmy Smith's "Back in the Chicken Shack". The day after that, I recorded the jazz standard "But Not For Me." Both songs I played pretty much by ear, having figured out the patterns of the keys and derived the shapes of the chords from music theory (I had no textbooks, just chutzpah).
By the third day, I was writing original, if simple, music using the organ. Just for you, dandelifers, I've uploaded a new track to my DMusic site -- this is a previously unreleased track called "Wicked", recorded on June 23, 2005.
[To hear this track, go to this page and look for the following line:
Comments on Wicked (Bonus Track) (LoFi HiFi) by Bruce H. McCosar
Click on the link that says "LoFi" or "HiFi" to play the song.]
Comments:
kga245 (February 25, 2007. 03:50pm)
Bruce - your music is fantastic. It's clear that you've got some pride in it since the quality shows. I feel in love with a <a href="http://www.fenderrhodes.com/home.php">Rhodes</a> a while back. Similar sound, no? I'm not much of a musician myself, but one day (<a href="http://dandelife.com/story/22210">hopefully soon</a>), I be able to join in on the improv sessions with ya.
bmccosar (February 25, 2007. 05:36pm)
That would be cool. I also like the Rhodes sound, so I have a MIDI module that plugs into the Hammond and lets me do piano, Rhodes, vibes, strings, etc.
Thanks for the compliment on my music. Music brings me a lot of joy, and I guess my hope is to spread some of it around. I've certainly been inspired by many great musicians, and I always hope my work will inspire someone else.
kga245 (February 25, 2007. 08:44pm)
NP. Keep up the good work - there and here, both.