Soul Stream Posted April 3, 2007 Report Posted April 3, 2007 As a few of you know, I received John Patton's Hammond B3 and Leslie from his widow Thelma last spring and thought some of you might enjoy a few pictures of it. A little background on it. John only owned 2 organs in his lifetime. The first was, what he described as, a beautiful "ebony" Hammond that fell out of Lou Donaldson's trailer and was destroyed very soon after he got it. The organ I have is the organ his bought after that. The story John told me about this B3 is that he and Grant Green walked into Macy's in downtown NYC in 1963 and bought this B3 brand new. I've taken a shot of the Macy's logo that is on the front rail. Very rare that a Hammond would have any other logo but that of the company. Also, the picture above it is a placard I found behind the organ that is a hand painted sign for the John Patton Organ Quartet hosted by the Bronx Cultural Arts Center. Quote
Dan Gould Posted April 3, 2007 Report Posted April 3, 2007 Wow. I'm speechless. Yeah, especially seeing all the settings. Quote
Rooster_Ties Posted April 3, 2007 Report Posted April 3, 2007 Amazing, simply amazing. But, just so I'm clear (and we all are), all Patton's BN dates would have been with John using Rudy's "house" organ, correct? Not this one. (Same goes for all of Larry Young's BN dates.) I think that's right. Quote
Aggie87 Posted April 3, 2007 Report Posted April 3, 2007 Thanks for sharing, that's just too cool! Is it in playing condition right now? Do you/would you use it? Quote
Joe G Posted April 3, 2007 Report Posted April 3, 2007 This must have been a gift of Karma for when your old Leslie got stolen. With interest! Quote
Jim Alfredson Posted April 3, 2007 Report Posted April 3, 2007 BTW, I have a Hammond CV that says "Lyon & Healy" on it, so sometimes the organs were rebranded for marketing reasons, I suppose. Quote
Soul Stream Posted April 3, 2007 Author Report Posted April 3, 2007 (edited) That's right. All of John's Blue Note recordings would have been done on Rudy's Hammond C3 in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. This was his gigging organ. You probably can't tell from the pictures, but this organ has lots of scars and stories to go with it. Still sounds unbelievable. I maintain it and play it daily. It doesn't leave my house and is babied to death. Thelma actually tried to donate this to the Smithsonian and they wouldn't take it (go figure.) John didn't record on this B3, but he did compose all his famous songs on it and gigged solely on this organ with Grant Green, Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt, Junior Cook, Tommy Turrentine, Eddie Gladden, Ben Dixon, Harold Alexander, George Braith, Blue Mitchell, Art Taylor, George Coleman, Hank Mobley, Arthur Prysock and on and on (virtually every legendary jazz musican on the New York scene from the 60's on.) Plus many organ legends sat in and played on this organ such as Larry Young and Don Patterson. I remember John telling me he used to rent this organ to Jack McDuff as well. Grant and John probably hauled this thing up a thousand stairs in it's day. Edited April 3, 2007 by Soul Stream Quote
Soul Stream Posted April 3, 2007 Author Report Posted April 3, 2007 This must have been a gift of Karma for when your old Leslie got stolen. With interest! Quote
Jim Alfredson Posted April 3, 2007 Report Posted April 3, 2007 I had a C3 that was played by McDuff for a week stint here in town and I never cleaned the keys. I wanted that McDuff greaze to stay there! Quote
The Magnificent Goldberg Posted April 3, 2007 Report Posted April 3, 2007 I can imagine how you must feel! A wonderful thing! Oh, would he have used it when he was doing gigs farther afield? I saw him in England in the early '90s (or thereabouts). He came over for a one nighter! MG Quote
bertrand Posted April 3, 2007 Report Posted April 3, 2007 (edited) Do you want me to try to find out from my contact at the Smithsonian what happened, or would Thelma prefer to keep this unfortunate matter under wraps? Bertrand. P.S. Did she try IJS? Edited April 3, 2007 by bertrand Quote
Soul Stream Posted April 3, 2007 Author Report Posted April 3, 2007 I can imagine how you must feel! A wonderful thing! Oh, would he have used it when he was doing gigs farther afield? I saw him in England in the early '90s (or thereabouts). He came over for a one nighter! MG MG, he wouldn't have taken it to europe. In his later years organs were provided for him at many gigs. Only occassionally would he bring this organ out. I think Joe Farnsworth would come get it for some gigs at Augie's back when that scene was just getting into the organ thing. Thelma has some video of John playing Augie's with Art Taylor as a duo on this organ. John lived up 3 flights of stairs, so he didn't bring his own organ too much after he came back up from the underground. Quote
chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez Posted April 3, 2007 Report Posted April 3, 2007 wait wait wait Soul Stream you were THAT tight w/ BJP that his widdow gave you his organ? can you explain some back story to this, how did you know bjp so well? Quote
Soul Stream Posted April 3, 2007 Author Report Posted April 3, 2007 wait wait wait Soul Stream you were THAT tight w/ BJP that his widdow gave you his organ? can you explain some back story to this, how did you know bjp so well? To make a long story short.... I met John a couple of years before he passed away and we became really good friends. I have a huge interest in John's concept on the organ and his original music and he really appreciated that I think. From the first time we sat down at the organ together we just hit it off. He gave me many many hours of instruction both at his house and over the phone. At times I would stay the weekend with him and Thelma. We'd play during the day and run around the New York spots at night, the Vanguard, Smoke, Showman's Lounge. Needless to say it was beyond my wildest dreams. I miss Big John a lot. He was even cooler, more spiritual, and more musical in person than you'd have even thought possible. A true original in every way. Quote
sidewinder Posted April 4, 2007 Report Posted April 4, 2007 Yep, very cool. to Thelma - this Hammond B3 has gone to a very good home. Quote
Shrdlu Posted April 4, 2007 Report Posted April 4, 2007 Awesome, Soul Stream! Thanks for this. Didn't most B3s have about three and a half octaves of bass pedals? I see that this one has only two. It's been awhile since I have been around one. Quote
Jim Alfredson Posted April 4, 2007 Report Posted April 4, 2007 No, the B3 has a 24 note pedalboard. The standard on pipe organs is 32 note, but Hammond didn't think that most people played the pedals on either extreme, so he cut those out to save money. You'll also notice that the pedal board is not concave but flat, unlike a real pipe organ pedal board. Again, this was to save money. However, Hammond did produce a couple of different models with a full, concave, 32 note pedal board. The D series and the RT series spring to mind. Quote
etherbored Posted April 4, 2007 Report Posted April 4, 2007 (edited) obviously a sacred instrument for many jazz fans, to be sure. my question is do and/or will you play this organ and/or what have you done with it? Edited April 4, 2007 by etherbored Quote
Chuck Nessa Posted April 4, 2007 Report Posted April 4, 2007 The instrument could not be in better hands. Quote
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