3 posts tagged “hammond”
When I talk about James Taylor, some people think I'm talking about some weedy American singer-songwriter from the 1970s. I am not. I am talking about the modern British master of the Hammond B3 organ, the leader of the James Taylor Quartet, the New Jersey Kings, and more recently James Taylor's 4th Dimension. He's been playing cop show and spy music since the 80s, such as this original theme from the imaginary movie of the same name, "The Money Spyder:"
Get it? Spyder, as in spy? The 1990s saw the original quartet grow to a septet (at least) with the addition of horn players and a percussionist, but kept the Quartet moniker. 1997's Creation album included Taylor's first original theme for a real movie, "Austin's Theme" from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Also on the album were two cop music covers, Lalo Schifrin's theme from Dirty Harry, and the theme from Starsky and Hutch:
The JTQ was back down to a quartet in the 2000s, and the new James Taylor's 4th Dimension is a quartet as well. It's on my list of things to get around to.
I thought I was done with the Cruisin' thread, but I just picked up the debut album by LA's slyly-named Big Organ Trio and "Road Rage" cried out for inclusion. Mike Mangan mans the B3 here, getting an almost guitar-like sound on his leads via a wah-wah pedal. The rhythm section of Brent McConnell (drums) and Bernie Bauer (bass) is augmented on this track by Damion Corideo, who provides some Latin percussion. The song is just on the edge of cruising and almost into car-chase territory:
Yes! You know you're doing something right when Keith Emerson keeps coming up on stage to jam with you. What do they sound and look like live? Like this:
Still cruisin'--here's one that I would like to be my cruising-the-nightlife song, but it has become my de facto crawling-through-traffic song. Which is perfect, because it's so upbeat it gives me the illusion of moving even when I'm not. The Sound Stylistics are a supergroup of UK funksters (though to tell the truth, the only name listed in this review that I recognize is that of Hammond organ guru James Taylor) who recorded an album called The Sound Stylistics Play Deep Funk for a film music library in 2002. But by popular demand the album was released to mere consumers this year on Freestyle Records (and iTunes). The high point of the album is track three, "The Players Theme," which demonstrates what happens when funk players turn it up to eleven, and features a generously long drum break (a category I think I'll explore in future posts). (What is it about the third track, is that the "power position" on an album? This is the fourth track three in a row that I've posted!) At just under five minutes long, it's just right for driving to the grocery store (and then starting over for the drive back):
The Sound Stylistics apparently like playing together enough to reunite for occasional live gigs; YouTube has a live version of "The Players Theme" from a June 13 performance at the Jazz Cafe:
