Sunday, September 03, 2006

Mack the Knife


Squeezytunes is featuring a video of the late Jimmy Smith playing Mack the Knife. Mr. Smith's name is synonymous with the Hammond B3 organ, with Leslie speaker. The B3 is a tone-wheel organ - oil is driven through tone wheels to make the sounds in a magical mechanical process. B3s are heavy instruments. Usually the sound is fed through a Leslie, which is a speaker with a section that spins, creating that sound we associate with the Hammond B3. Follow the link, and enjoy the video.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That Jimmy Smith video is such a (wonderful) classic! The other Hammond B3 organist I'm familiar with is the late, great Earl Grant...and his version of Ebb Tide (complete with bird calls) released in '61.

mister anchovy said...

Also check out Brother Jack McDuff. I don't think his work is as consistant as Smith's (in other words he recorded some turkeys), but some of it is very, very good.