Hammond Joy cd
It seems rather obvious: When you play organ, then your mind is showing the word ‘organic'. Hand and feet labor in combination with the from firm wood build secretary clearly has this influence.
I had already the honor to pay attention to the brave attempts of the German Organic label.
Mid December I received an e-mail of Raphael Wressnig in which he spoke of an ‘Organic Trio' who had produced a ‘Manic Organic' cd. My first impression was that this was a new release of ‘Organic Music' but when I looked better at Raphael's homepage raphaelwressnig.com I learned that it handles about a thoroughbred 23 years old Austrian Hammond player.
The music I heard at Raphael's homepage made me curious enough to contact him, resulting
in an exchange of cd's and at this moment I'm listening to ‘Manic Organic'.
The word is: Surprising.
Even: Pleasantly surprising.
The in September 2002 recorded album delivers a high amount of ‘listening pleasure'.
The joy of playing the Hammond sparked on all sides.
The trio, consisting of guitar player Georg Jantscher and drummer Harry Tanschek, draws from the rich Hammond tradition but adds a own view and sound.
From the liner notes I quote:
‘The trio plays original compositions and also pays tribute to Jimmy Smith, the master of the
jazz organ'.
An adequate paraphrase of what you can hear on this cd. So it will be.
No criticism concerning the recording, quality-wise speaking: good.
A nice fat sound with the right dose of reverb and roughness. The organ, a transportable B3 from 1960 with Leslie 122, is sounding just as the real lover is expecting. The balance between the organ and the rest is ok, only the drums are sounding a little bit to sharp.
The first song is a composition made by tenor-player David Newman, ‘Duffin' Round'. A song that makes immediately clear that we are dealing here with a true Hammond organ adept. The ensemble playing sounds supple and both the organ player and the guitar player are picking up each other in a nice way. The guitar player is obviously fond of John Scofield but finds also his roots in the blues. The composition ‘Sexy Blues' is made by him. The drummer has signed for the song ‘Pyton's Pint'. Raphael adds his composition ‘Groove It' to this album.
The trio is joined by two guests on this cd. A singer named ‘Billie d.' who sings together with Raphael on organ, the traditional ‘God Bless The child ' and ‘sir' Oliver Mally a slide guitar player who you can hear playing the slide-guitar in ‘Joyful Jam', a joint composition of him and Raphael.
The Smith's songs, ‘The Boss', ‘8 Count's for Rita' and ‘Mellow Mood' form a homage to good old Jimmy.
Raphael who started playing the Hammond as an autodidact at the age of sixteen, toured through Europe with a lot of blues coryphaeus, among those Lousiana Red, Steve James and Larry Garner. Not a bad education in my opinion and you can hear it. The blues feeling, who I sometimes missed by the organ-players who recorded for the Organic label , you will find here. Nevertheless this cd should be catalogued under Hammond-jazz.
It's reassuring to know that at the feet of the Alps the word is also preached with great enthusiasm Well done Raphael.
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