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Literature review

There is an extensive amount of literature on jazz piano, but way less on the Hammond organ. A widely used work in the field of jazz piano is The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine. It handles the basics of voicings shortly and then goes up in level dramatically, using a lot of theory that is based on modes rather than classical harmony. Modes are really not that important for my research, because most jazz styles have far more connections with classical harmony and scales than modes, which are especially useful for explaining modal jazz. In later chapters it builds upon scales, block chords and even has short introductions to stride and salsa piano. The block chord part turns out to be very useful.

A book I have discovered recently is Jeb Patton's An Approach To Comping, which covers a wider variety of "comping" situations on piano. Comping is short for accompanying or complementing, an art form that has to be in each well-respected jazz pianist's bag. An Approach To Comping turned out to be a great source of insight.

For Hammond organ, Tony Monaco’s series of DVDs and video downloads called Bass & Comp and Playing Jazz Hammond are relevant, as well as HammondWiki, a website built by Hammond enthusiast Geoffrey T. Dairiki.¹ Monaco discusses the technology of the Hammond organ, such as drawbars, percussion, the Leslie switch, and gives an extensive explanation of how to construct bass lines in various styles. The explanation is put clearly into view, with a keyboard lay-out at the bottom of the screen and a separate camera for the footwork. At times I find him a bit side-tracked and the amount of hand gestures really does not help with the focus on practicing, but that is probably the nature of the beast. Also, he does not address the different approaches to playing Hammond in relation to the piano.

This is in line with the existing literature on the differences between the organ and the piano, which is somewhere close to non-existent. Therefore, this study will concentrate on switching off the instincts and habits of the advanced jazz pianist if he/she wants to master the Hammond organ.

To fill this gap, I have structured this research according to the main musical features that create the main distinctions between piano and Hammond performance: technological construct, timbre, and approaches to the bass parts, harmony, dynamics, rhythm and effects.

In the first section I will introduce how both instruments work and analyze their timbres by means of spectrograms. In the second section I will cover the role of the bass, how it developed on both piano and organ, and then I will split it up between the left hand and left foot. In the third section I will focus on harmony and on how pianists use both hands for it, while organ players use either their right hand or left hand only, depending on the way the bass is played and on which hand is operating switches and therefore not available for playing. I will use examples from Jeb Patton’s method, An Approach To Comping, Mark Levine’s Jazz Piano Book and Tony Monaco’s Bass & Comp educational videos for organ. The fourth section is all about dynamics and rhythm. Dynamics on piano are controlled by arm weight and finger action, while on organ it is all about the drawbar settings and the expression pedal. Rhythmically, everything the organist plays has a much bigger influence on the music, mostly because of his/her bigger role in the band and the very direct on/off character of the instrument.

The fifth and last section I will discuss typical playing techniques for piano and Hammond organ. In this section I will explain single lines, block chords or locked hands, squabbling, backing off with the expression pedal, the organ crawl, holding a note while playing above or underneath it, fluttering, slides and swoops and creative drawbar settings. A video comparison between songs on piano and Hammond organ based on my interviews with Mike LeDonne and Ronnie Foster will end this section, which will bring me to a conclusion.

Introducing Mike LeDonne and Ronnie Foster

Pianist Mike LeDonne started playing piano at the age of 5 and was raised in his parent’s music store. By the age of 10 his father, a jazz guitarist, began booking him on gigs. He is now an internationally renowned pianist and organist with the unique experience of having played with a wide spectrum of jazz masters from Benny Goodman to Milt Jackson and Sonny Rollins. He has won praise not only from critics but from master musicians: Oscar Peterson picked him as one of his favorite pianists of today … In 2003 Mike recorded his first CD as a leader on the Hammond Organ, an instrument he’s been playing since he was 10. It documented the music of his organ band The Groover Quartet with Eric Alexander, Peter Bernstein and Joe Farnsworth. The CD went to #1 and together they’ve held down a now legendary gig on Tuesday nights at Smoke in NYC. He has since released 3 more CD’s of this band, on the Savant label, which he calls The Groover Quartet. They’ve toured in Europe and Japan as well as the States. Mike also caught the ears of George Coleman, Lou Donaldson and David Fathead Newman who all hired him to play organ in their bands. The Jazz Journalists Association nominated Mike for Best Keyboards 2012 for his “Keep The Faith” CD. Also in 2012, Mike won the Downbeat Rising Star Award for Organ.²

Born in Buffalo, New York Ronnie Foster began playing piano at the age of 4. By age 12 he had switched to Hammond organ and became a student of the jazz great Jimmy Smith. At age 15, Ronnie started playing with George Benson on weekends, while still in school … At 20 he got a call from New York that Saxophonist great Stanley Turrentine was looking for a new organist. He did one gig with Stanley. Word of Ronnie was traveling fast. While he waited for the call about the next Turrentine gig, guitar legend Grant Green heard that Ronnie was in New York. Green hired Ronnie to go on the road. This event would prove to be a turning point for Ronnie as it offered him his first recording session experience; Grant Green ‘Alive’. This important session led Ronnie to a recording contract of his own with the legendary record label: Blue Note Records ... As a recording artist Ronnie’s solo discography consists of 5 albums for Blue Note, 2 albums for Columbia Records and 1 album for Projazz … Ronnie’s career and influence has spanned many varied artists and recordings as he began concentrating on session work. Some of those artists include: George Benson, Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Earl Klugh, Jimmy Ponder, Stanley Clarke, Lalo Schifrin, Harvey Mason, Jimmy Smith, Stanley Turrentine, David Sanborn, Lee Ritenour, The Temptations and Grover Washington, Jr. Ronnie Foster has played a significant role in mainstream and funk-jazz throughout the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.³

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