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Hammond Heaven
Columbus's fame as a jazz-organ Mecca has spread around the world
By LEE BROWN
Except for the saxophone, no musical instrument has been so thoroughly connected with jazz as the Hammond B-3 organ. And maybe no town has a tighter connection with the B-3 than Columbus.
In fact, we may be the B-3 capital of the world thanks to legendary figures like Don Patterson and Hank Marr—and to the B-3 jockeys now playing at home and away, like Tony Monaco, Bobby Floyd and Linda Dachtyl.
Evidence for Columbus’s reputation comes from as far away as Japan, where the globally famous Monaco hears Columbus B-3 stories retold when he’s on tour.
And from New Zealand: Organist Adrienne Hindmarsh and her guitarist-husband, Josh, just moved to Columbus from that Down Under island nation. Why? For the B-3 organ scene.
Over the years, that scene has provided organ fans with memories so vivid, it’s no wonder they’ve found their way around the planet. Just one example:
Until its demise, the 501 Jazz Bar on North Park Street had a B-3 on site. It was paired up a few years ago with a second B-3 in a hair-raising shootout in front of a packed house between Monaco and famed Joey DeFrancesco. The duo slayed the crowd with a series of ascending peaks. But the star of the show was that B-3 sound—times two, in this case. With the whirling Leslie speakers bending the notes with Doppler effects, the air was filled with the tangible breath of two live beasts.
The thing about a Hammond organ is that a player can land on a chord, stick there and then use the nine drawbars to slowly morph its color while swelling its volume. The chord will slowly open, wider, wider, wider, heralding a sonic sunrise—like those that warmed up that winter night at the 501.
Columbus’s place in the B-3 universe was cinched by such vibrato visionaries as Hank Marr. Though he was a quietly thrilling pianist, most people’s mental picture of Marr would place him at the seat of a B-3 console. And there he stayed until shortly before his death.
In February 2003, in failing health, Marr was not expected to perform as usual at a Columbus Jazz Orchestra concert. The crowd leapt to its feet late that evening when he strolled out anyway. During the colossal ovation, Marr took his seat at the B-3, held up his hand, finally got silence and threw the B-3 switch. You could feel the speakers tremble as he launched into what had become his signature piece, “Amazing Grace.”
Marr painted the hymn with colors that varied from performance to performance, but he always added his special trademark. After finding a groove, he’d begin preaching—one voice orating from one keyboard, a second voice holding forth from the other—and then building it all into celestial cacophony.
On Marr’s death in 2004, a crowd was stacked to the Southern Theatre rafters to celebrate his half-century as a giant of the B-3. It was a civic event.
Of the Hammond models built since 1934, the B-3 is the jazz and rock favorite. It belongs to that group that uses the mysterious tone wheels, a series of silver dollar-sized disks that spin near an electromagnetic pickup to generate weak fluctuations, which, when enormously amplified, move tons of air to project the sound to you.
Although the B-3, the A-100 and the C-3 are all tone-wheel organs, the C-3 console design looked better in church, while the A-100 had a fair chance of fitting into your living room. It’s the B-3 that found a home onstage—partly, theorizes Monaco, because it has that “mysterious look, sort of like a coffin.”
The organ also has abilities galore. Along with the drawbars, the B-3 has two keyboards and a variety of built-in effects, including percussion, several different choruses and vibrato. A set of foot pedals can be used either for playing a walking bass or for bass accents.
And finally, there’s the Leslie—an external speaker that, although now standard with a B-3, is not a Hammond product. The Leslie contains two rotating treble horns at the top, a bass woofer inside and another pair of rotators at the bottom. Flip the spinning horns’ fast switch, and the speakers pick up velocity, producing that wild Hammond vibrato.
Modern portable keyboards have settings that supposedly clone the B-3 sound. But nothing catches the visceral roar of a Hammond.
A Columbus native, Monaco started checking out local players like Marr, Bobby Pierce and Alvin Valentine as soon as he learned the basics of this soul-stirring instrument. But it was Don Patterson “who really opened up my playing,” Monaco says. He knew how to run bop lines, “not just blues licks”—which explains Patterson’s fame as a collaborator with heavy-hitting bop musicians like Sonny Stitt.
But how does Monaco explain Columbus’s fame as a home and incubator of B-3 talent?
Columbus organ swing, he says, has its own “chitlin’ circuit lilt.” Some of this, Monaco attributes to the funkiness of Marr, who made a pile of jukebox singles for King Records with titles like “Greasy Spoon.”
According to Bobby Floyd, Columbus also has “a heavy gospel influence,” which came from players like Bill Mason—one of Floyd’s mentors.
At the end of the 2004 Hank Marr memorial, Floyd reprised “Amazing Grace,” making sure to reference Hank’s talking keyboard but without aping it. And his intricate serpentine intro was pure Floyd.
However Columbus earned its place in B-3 history, one thing is certain: That history is still being written here.
When he’s not on tour with jazz heavy hitters, you’ll probably find Monaco at the Ravari Room. And you can catch Floyd at his weekly Saturday afternoon jams at the Lobby when he’s not touring or appearing as resident pianist and organist with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra.
Other local B-3 players include Dachtyl, who counts Monaco and Marr among her major influences. Dachtyl began getting national attention with her release Blue Bop, but she can still be heard at area clubs like the Thirsty Ear and Dick’s Den.
And as for the Hindmarshes, those newcomers from New Zealand, they’re already playing around town—at the Vonn Lounge in Linworth, for instance, or James’ Club 88.
Is Columbus the B-3 capital of the world? If it isn’t, these folks came a hell of a long way for nothing.
In fact, we may be the B-3 capital of the world thanks to legendary figures like Don Patterson and Hank Marr—and to the B-3 jockeys now playing at home and away, like Tony Monaco, Bobby Floyd and Linda Dachtyl.
Evidence for Columbus’s reputation comes from as far away as Japan, where the globally famous Monaco hears Columbus B-3 stories retold when he’s on tour.
And from New Zealand: Organist Adrienne Hindmarsh and her guitarist-husband, Josh, just moved to Columbus from that Down Under island nation. Why? For the B-3 organ scene.
Over the years, that scene has provided organ fans with memories so vivid, it’s no wonder they’ve found their way around the planet. Just one example:
Until its demise, the 501 Jazz Bar on North Park Street had a B-3 on site. It was paired up a few years ago with a second B-3 in a hair-raising shootout in front of a packed house between Monaco and famed Joey DeFrancesco. The duo slayed the crowd with a series of ascending peaks. But the star of the show was that B-3 sound—times two, in this case. With the whirling Leslie speakers bending the notes with Doppler effects, the air was filled with the tangible breath of two live beasts.
The thing about a Hammond organ is that a player can land on a chord, stick there and then use the nine drawbars to slowly morph its color while swelling its volume. The chord will slowly open, wider, wider, wider, heralding a sonic sunrise—like those that warmed up that winter night at the 501.
Columbus’s place in the B-3 universe was cinched by such vibrato visionaries as Hank Marr. Though he was a quietly thrilling pianist, most people’s mental picture of Marr would place him at the seat of a B-3 console. And there he stayed until shortly before his death.
In February 2003, in failing health, Marr was not expected to perform as usual at a Columbus Jazz Orchestra concert. The crowd leapt to its feet late that evening when he strolled out anyway. During the colossal ovation, Marr took his seat at the B-3, held up his hand, finally got silence and threw the B-3 switch. You could feel the speakers tremble as he launched into what had become his signature piece, “Amazing Grace.”
Marr painted the hymn with colors that varied from performance to performance, but he always added his special trademark. After finding a groove, he’d begin preaching—one voice orating from one keyboard, a second voice holding forth from the other—and then building it all into celestial cacophony.
On Marr’s death in 2004, a crowd was stacked to the Southern Theatre rafters to celebrate his half-century as a giant of the B-3. It was a civic event.
Of the Hammond models built since 1934, the B-3 is the jazz and rock favorite. It belongs to that group that uses the mysterious tone wheels, a series of silver dollar-sized disks that spin near an electromagnetic pickup to generate weak fluctuations, which, when enormously amplified, move tons of air to project the sound to you.
Although the B-3, the A-100 and the C-3 are all tone-wheel organs, the C-3 console design looked better in church, while the A-100 had a fair chance of fitting into your living room. It’s the B-3 that found a home onstage—partly, theorizes Monaco, because it has that “mysterious look, sort of like a coffin.”
The organ also has abilities galore. Along with the drawbars, the B-3 has two keyboards and a variety of built-in effects, including percussion, several different choruses and vibrato. A set of foot pedals can be used either for playing a walking bass or for bass accents.
And finally, there’s the Leslie—an external speaker that, although now standard with a B-3, is not a Hammond product. The Leslie contains two rotating treble horns at the top, a bass woofer inside and another pair of rotators at the bottom. Flip the spinning horns’ fast switch, and the speakers pick up velocity, producing that wild Hammond vibrato.
Modern portable keyboards have settings that supposedly clone the B-3 sound. But nothing catches the visceral roar of a Hammond.
A Columbus native, Monaco started checking out local players like Marr, Bobby Pierce and Alvin Valentine as soon as he learned the basics of this soul-stirring instrument. But it was Don Patterson “who really opened up my playing,” Monaco says. He knew how to run bop lines, “not just blues licks”—which explains Patterson’s fame as a collaborator with heavy-hitting bop musicians like Sonny Stitt.
But how does Monaco explain Columbus’s fame as a home and incubator of B-3 talent?
Columbus organ swing, he says, has its own “chitlin’ circuit lilt.” Some of this, Monaco attributes to the funkiness of Marr, who made a pile of jukebox singles for King Records with titles like “Greasy Spoon.”
According to Bobby Floyd, Columbus also has “a heavy gospel influence,” which came from players like Bill Mason—one of Floyd’s mentors.
At the end of the 2004 Hank Marr memorial, Floyd reprised “Amazing Grace,” making sure to reference Hank’s talking keyboard but without aping it. And his intricate serpentine intro was pure Floyd.
However Columbus earned its place in B-3 history, one thing is certain: That history is still being written here.
When he’s not on tour with jazz heavy hitters, you’ll probably find Monaco at the Ravari Room. And you can catch Floyd at his weekly Saturday afternoon jams at the Lobby when he’s not touring or appearing as resident pianist and organist with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra.
Other local B-3 players include Dachtyl, who counts Monaco and Marr among her major influences. Dachtyl began getting national attention with her release Blue Bop, but she can still be heard at area clubs like the Thirsty Ear and Dick’s Den.
And as for the Hindmarshes, those newcomers from New Zealand, they’re already playing around town—at the Vonn Lounge in Linworth, for instance, or James’ Club 88.
Is Columbus the B-3 capital of the world? If it isn’t, these folks came a hell of a long way for nothing.
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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of theotherpaper.com.
Christopher Vehr wrote on Aug 15, 2008 12:16 PM:
" I must say we are so blessed to have the B-3 present in this town. I make sure to make it to the Ravari Room as much as I can to see Tony, and we even have a group with us labeled "the three wisemen" who travel around to see him. Recently, I have made sure to hear the Hindmarshes as much as I can and they have became great friends due to the power of this music! Jazz doesn't stop at the B-3 folks - be a part of our blessed community and go out and listen! "
James Marr Jr wrote on Aug 15, 2008 1:08 PM: