Musical Director, guitarist Bob DeVos: "This
concert is a gift to the people of Newark and to all who love the jazz
organ. Speaking for all the musicians, we are honored to pay tribute to
Jimmy McGriff."
Beginning in the
1960s, Newark was one of the nation’s key centers of the soul-jazz sound
of the Hammond B-3 Organ. Come Sunday, October 23 the City of Newark will
again fill with the sounds and the spirit of the Hammond B-3 Organ at An
Organ Summit Supreme.
Organ legends Jimmy
McGriff, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Trudy Pitts, and Gene Ludwig will be
‘jammin’ on the Hammond B-3 Organ at the African American Education
and Cultural Resource Center, at the corner of James Street &
Washington Street, from 3:00pm to 8:00pm. Top musicians including tenor
saxophonists David “Fathead” Newman, Houston Person, guitarists Bob
DeVos and Vinnie Corrao, and drummers Rudy Petschauer and Don Williams
join them.
The Newark Department
of Recreation and Cultural Affairs and media sponsor WBGO Jazz 88.3FM
present the event. WBGO's Gary Walker will host the event.
This
free concert moves forward the tradition of the four-organist jams held at
Newark Symphony Hall and elsewhere in the city during the 1990s.
“Each of these musicians has deep roots in Newark jazz history”
explains event musical director, guitarist Bob DeVos,
“And each of these musicians is still out there playing,
performing, and recording. The resurgence of the organ genre has been
deepening over the last ten-15 years with many young players on the scene.
This is music for all ages. Executive
producers Valerie James and Jimmy “Chops” Jones of the City, WBGO
general manager Cephas Bowles, and I want to bring in both the loyal
Newark fans of the organ genre and to encourage a new generation of
listeners.”
The City of Newark
will also present an Award of Recognition to Jimmy McGriff for his
contributions to Newark’s cultural life.
McGriff lived in Newark and owned and played at his own club, The
Golden Slipper, during the early 70s.
He has long been a favorite of Newark audiences. Please join us for
a day of terrific music. There
will be both cabaret and auditorium seating, available on a first-come
basis. Door open at 2PM.
Light refreshments will be served. For
more information call (973)733-6454 and
listen for news and related interviews on WBGO Jazz88.3FM this fall.
ARTIST
BIOGRAPHIES
The modern jazz organ
has a rich history and the city of Newark and the musicians performing
today at An Organ Summit Supreme are vital to this history.
Being
honored is Jimmy
McGriff, the
King of the Blues Organ.
McGriff
may have studied
formally at Juilliard and at Philadelphia's Combe College of Music, but
his music is always swinging and steeped in blues and gospel. McGriff's
brand of jazz is about feeling. "That's the most important
thing," he says. McGriff’s
sets are his own combination of blues, swing, funk, and gospel-derived
sounds. Jimmy studied and
performed with Jimmy Smith as well as organ great Richard “Groove “
Holmes. In the early 60s, Jimmy’s first single, I’ve Got a Woman,
released by Sue Records in New York, became a smash hit, peaking at No. 5
on Billboard's
chart
and at No. 20 on the pop list. With that and such subsequent Sue Records
singles as "All About My Girl," "M.G. Blues," and
"Bump De Bump," the organist staked out a musical turf all his
own, somewhere between the jazz of Jimmy Smith and the R&B of Booker
T. & the MGs. In the late 60s and early 70s Jimmy lived in Newark and
opened his own club, The Golden Slipper. After leaving Sue Records,
McGriff recorded prolifically for such labels as Solid State, Blue Note,
Capitol, United Artists, Groove Merchant, and JAM.
He has recorded 14 albums for Milestone (counting the five he cut
as co-leader with alto great Hank Crawford). Jimmy McGriff continues to be
one of the best-loved and most popular musicians in the organ genre.
Dr.
Lonnie Smith
is internationally known as one of the premier jazz keyboardists in the
history of the idiom. A dominant talent and pace-setting proponent of the
Hammond B3 Organ and widely recognized and gifted pianist, Lonnie has been
at the forefront of the jazz scene since 1969, when he was named Top
Organist by Downbeat
Magazine.
Most recently, Dr. Smith has been awarded the Organ Keyboardist of
the Year award in 2003, 2004 and 2005 by the Jazz Journalist Association.
Lonnie was born into a musical family in Buffalo, NY and credits his
mother with introducing him to gospel and jazz.
He
sang with the family group before turning to the organ. He soon recorded
several albums as a member of guitarist George Benson’s legendary
quartet and then went on to become a major recording artist in his own
right, making over 30 recordings. Many
legendary jazz artists have joined Dr. Lonnie Smith on his albums,
including Lee Morgan, David "Fathead" Newman, King Curtis, Blue
Mitchell, and Joe Lovano among others. Lonnie
has performed at the major world jazz festivals with Dizzy Gillespie,
Grover Washington Jr., Ron Carter, Lou Donaldson, Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy
Scott, Frank Foster, Leon Thomas, Willis Jackson and other prominent jazz
artists. His extraordinary range has also included performances with
the rhythm and blues greats Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick, Etta James,
Esther Phillips, the Impressions, and the Coasters. Dr. Lonnie
Smith's album, Lenox and Seventh Avenue, recorded in Paris, has become a
classic jazz tour de force.
Celebrated
B-3 organ player Trudy
Pitts is also a Julliard-trained classic pianist. She
brings to the B-3 an array of warm and often sinewy timbres more akin to
the church pipe organ. She became immersed in jazz while playing in
drummer (and later her husband and life long partner) Bill Carney’s band
that also included legendary saxophonist John Coltrane.
By the late 1960s Pitts was a sensation on the Hammond organ, her
drawbar variations, vibrato shadings and bass pedal work captivating
audiences. She was a pioneer of Soul Jazz, and was one of the earlier
proponents of the organ as a jazz instrument. She recorded four albums for
Prestige, appearing with Willis Jackson, Pat Martino and later Rahsaan
Roland Kirk. Those recording are classics of the genre.
Trudy and Bill were
the first act to perform when the famed Key Club opened in Newark and Bill
Carney first conceived the concept of the multi-organ jam. Named “A
Living Legend” for her lifetime achievements by International Women in
Jazz in 1996, she has performed with many of the greatest names in jazz,
including Coltrane, Kirk, Grover Washington Jr., Lionel Hampton, Donald
Byrd, Ben Webster, Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt. The pianist/organist also
is an excellent composer, arranger, vocalist and teacher. Pitts’
organ legacy is rich with clever musicianship, creative arranging and
above all that indefinable virtue – soul.
Pittsburgh based
Hammond B3 Master, Gene
Ludwig, has worked with Arthur
Prysock and has played and recorded with Pat Martino, Sonny Stitt, and Red
Holloway-Plas Johnson and has collaborated often with fellow B3 organists
the late Jack McDuff and Joey DeFrancesco. He has been and will continue
to be one of this country's most passionate exponents of Jazz Organ;
"I have an A-100 Hammond in my game room and I keep two B-3's in my
garage... I'm ready to go when I get my calls". In a May 2001
profile, Jazzis hailed him as “perhaps the finest mainstream jazz organ
player alive.” Since his best selling
"Soul Serenade" in 2000 on Blues Leaf he has scored for
that label with "The Groove Organization" in 2002 (with
today’s guitarist Bob DeVos) and his current "Hands On" in
2004. A live recording from the Blue Note in Las Vegas is awaiting release
in 2005. Gene’s playing gets high praise for its energy and hard driving
groove. Gene has a long history of
performing in the Newark clubs and at Newark organ jams.
David
"Fathead" Newman
was born in Corsicana, Texas on February 24, 1933. After completing school
in Dallas, David found gigs in local bands. He received a scholarship to
Jarvis Christian College where he studied theology and music. After two
years of college, David decided to go on the road full time with Buster
Smith (Charlie Parker's mentor.) While on tour, David met Ray Charles.
When Ray started his own band, he called on David to be part of his group.
In 1954, David began a twelve-year association with the Ray Charles Band,
first as the baritone player, then soon as the star tenor soloist. In
1959, David recorded his first album as a leader titled, "Fathead:
Ray Charles Presents 'Fathead'" on Atlantic Records. It included
Newman's dramatic and now famous rendition of Hard Times. He returned to
Dallas for a short time and led his own bands.
Newman
then moved to NYC and recorded many albums for Atlantic records, as well
as Warner Brothers and Prestige. During these years, NYC, David gigged
with Lee Morgan, Kenny Drew Sr., Billy Higgins, Kenny Dorham and many
others. With his own quartet he toured the east coast, Europe and Japan.
Newman was also an in
demand studio musician, recording with Herbie Mann, Aretha Franklin, Hank
Crawford, Aaron Neville, just to name a few.
In
1980, Newman, recorded several main stream jazz albums for the Muse label
with Cedar Walton, Jimmy Cobb, Buster Williams, Louis Hayes, among others.
David returned to Atlantic Records in the late eighties to record several
albums including live at the Village Vanguard with Stanley Turrentine and
Hank Crawford. After
recording on the Kokopelli label, David moved to the High Note label where
he has recorded six successful CDs. The most recent, I Remember Brother
Ray, was released in January 2005 and rose to number one in the jazz
charts.
Houston
Person,
tenor saxophone,
is
universally considered the natural heir to the Boss Tenor crown worn so
long and so well by Gene Ammons. In the more than twenty-five years that
he has been a working bandleader, Person has taken his show to most points
on the globe. One of the last proponents of the big sound, his tone
has gotten bigger even as his delivery has mellowed and rounded out.
In 1968 he began a sympathetic and successful musical partnership
with the great Etta Jones that lasted over 30 years until her death. In
recent years, he has received the recognition he so richly deserves as
today's leading instrumentalist in the popular tradition of Gene Ammons
and Stanley Turrentine. He has recorded numerous top selling CDs for High
Note records, where he is also a producer.
An Organ Summits Supreme’s
Musical Director and guitarist is guitarist-composer-arranger Bob DeVos. DeVos has been critically hailed as a “brilliant player, a master with a
sound to die for: rich, full, deep, positive, round and warm. He has
played and recorded with Hammond B3 Organ greats Charles Earland, Jimmy
McGriff-Hank Crawford, Richard “Groove” Holmes-Sonny Stitt, Joey
DeFrancesco, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Gene Ludwig as well as many other jazz
greats, including all of An Organ Summit Supreme’ artists.
Bob’s jazz career began in the early 70s touring with organist
Trudy Pitts and he recently reunited with her for a series of
performances.
Active
on the NYC scene, Bob can be heard heading his own Hammond B3 Organ trio
and as a regular member of legendary bassist The Ron McClure’s Quartet. Bob’s
CDs as a leader for Savant and Blues Leaf Records earned many stars in
Downbeat and throughout the jazz media. He appeared and did most of the
arrangements for Keeper of the Flame: The Charles Earland Tribute Band for
High Note that included Joey DeFrancesco on Hammond B-3, Eric Alexander on
tenor and that was on top ten annual lists throughout the country.
His compositions have been recognized by the NJ Council on the
Arts, reviewers and other jazz artists.
Guitarist Vinnie Corrao has a long history of performing and recording with many Hammond Organ
Trio greats: Joey DeFrancesco, Les
Mc Cann, Willis "'Gatortail" Jackson, “Brother” Jack Mc
Duff, Don Patterson, Sonny Stitt, Freddie Roach, Bu Pleasant and Butch
Cornell. He appeared often in the Newark clubs and has performed at many
organ summits in Newark and elsewhere.
Don
Williams
"Big Don" distinguished career drummer has worked with notables
such as: Arthur Prysock, Groove Holmes, Jack McDuff, Joey DeFrancesco,
Hank Crawford, and currently with Jimmy McGriff. His remarkable
driving force has driven bands at Jazz Festivals around the world. He
is noted for his commanding "smokin" pulse which happens to
be the name of his upcoming and soon to be released CD "Smokin"
with his own band Jazz Just-Us. Don was born in Newark, and
continues to play in town, often with his wife, vocalist Lady CiCi.
Born
in Vancouver, Canada (May 18, 1958), Rudy
Petschauer
attended music school in Portland,
Oregon and Rudy became the most in-demand jazz drummer in the area.
He was a member of Concord recording artist, Fraser MacPherson’s Quartet
for three years and during that time, recorded many radio and C.B.C. TV
shows with that group. During the early 1980’s, Rudy was also
musical director of the Vancouver jazz club, Basin Street.
While in Vancouver, Rudy was the drummer of choice for visiting jazz
greats performing in the region. Among them was: John Handy, Joe
Pass, Joe Farrell, Herb Ellis, Richie Cole, and Tal Farlow. He was
also a regular member of pianist Renee Rosnes’ trio.
In 1985, Rudy relocated to New York City looking for a more stimulating
musical environment. Shortly after arriving, he began to work around
the city at such venues as The Village Gate, The Blue Note, and Fat
Tuesday’s. In 1986, he co-led a group that won the New York
Hennessy Jazz Search. Organist Jack McDuff hired Rudy for his band
“The Heatin’ System” in 1987. Rudy toured Europe and North
America extensively with that group. He is featured on five of McDuff’s
Concord Records releases including “Bringin’ It Home” featuring
George Benson. In 1992, Rudy was a semi-finalist in the Thelonius Monk
Drum Competition. Other musicians that Rudy has worked with since
reaching New York are Diana Krall, David “Fathead” Newman, Hank
Crawford, Teddy Edwards, Renee Rosnes, Lew Tabackin, Mark Whitfield, Bob
DeVos, John Hart, and Jeannie Bryson. As well as keeping a very busy
freelance schedule, Rudy has recently been recording and touring with the
sensational funk organ sextet “Sugarman 3.” Rudy’s big band
experience includes extensive work with the Glenn Miller Orchestra and the
Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under the direction of Buddy Morrow.
Petschauer recently completed recording a tribute CD
to Organ great Jack McDuff with Joey DeFrancesco and all the members of
McDuff’s final band.
