Big John Patton and Me…

Man, listen, it's so sensitive and it will reveal its secrets if you try to get up in there and learn it...and learn the sound and contact. You can't play it like a piano 'cause that's another thing altogether. The notes are the same but, see, that electricity puts another 'jammie' on you, you know what I mean? You must deal with touch and so many other things...and I was very frustrated at first.
John Patton on the Hammond B3

***Let ‘Em Roll (1966) signed by John***

I want to go on studying. A musician cannot stand still. The mechanical power of the organ can delude you into projecting strength as opposed to blending it with other instruments. Control is very important and so is direction.
John Patton, liner notes Oh Baby 1965

Ben Dixon was my mentor…he was a hell of a reader and did a lot of writing. He liked Max (Roach) for his technical ability and melodic playing, but Philly Joe Jones, who was his idol, for the flair. Ben was always trying to create different beats, he could really swing and was so uninhibited about 2 and 4; he was like the drummers now, he would utilize the sock cymbal and turn the cymbal beat around…just create his stuff. Very few of the musicians I have played with are as great musically and rhythmically.
John Patton on drummer Ben Dixon

***Signifyin’ (1963) signed by John, Ben Dixon, Lou Donaldson***

The Hammond B3 organ has an intoxicating and sultry sound, with a warmth and sensuousness that is as alluring as it is seductive. Featuring a Leslie woofer (usually housed in a beautiful wood cabinet), the Hammond B3 makes a distinctive whooshing flutter, and most practitioners use the foot pedals to supply the bass lines, so an electric Fender bass, or acoustic upright bass is unneeded and unnecessary. There is no thicker, greasier, soulful music than a Hammond B3 cranked up, Leslie woofer whirring away in the hands of a master like Jimmy Smith or Jimmy McGriff. No finer sound in Jazz, Soul, Blues or Rock exists. Witness Al Kooper's opening on Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone", Otis Redding's transcendent "Try A Little Tenderness" with Isaac Hayes on Hammond (yes, John Muthaf#ckin' Shaft hisself!), the Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin' " with an eighteen year old Stevie Winwood laying out on keys and vocals, or Booker T. Jones' funkified filth on "Green Onions." It's hard to imagine these songs without a Hammond B3, and under its spell, in the immortal words of Parliament-Funkadelic maestro George Clinton, it is "one nation under a groove."

For all intents and purposes, the history of the Hammond B3 in Jazz is defined by two eras: BJS (Before Jimmy Smith, pre-1956) and AJS (After Jimmy Smith, post-1956). It is no exaggeration the influence Jimmy Smith wields: his impact and lineage is as impressive as it is wide and deep. As guitarist and Ellington scholar Kenny Burrell said of Jimmy: "He had a real genius. If you think about the jazz greats on instruments - Miles (Davis), Charlie Parker, and (John) Coltrane - Jimmy was in that league. There were jazz organists before him, but he put it on a level with those jazz greats." Virtually every Jazz organist who followed Jimmy Smith owes him a debt of gratitude including Jimmy McGriff, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Charles Earland, Jack McDuff, Shirley Scott, and rock and roll players like Gregg Allman, Brian Auger, Keith Emerson and Jon Lord. Even hip hop artists Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Thievery Corporation, Travis Scott and The Weeknd have sampled Jimmy Smith's grooves in their recent recordings.

***Understanding (1968) signed by John***

"Big" John Patton is no exception to the pervasive influence of Jimmy Smith. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, John studied piano and after high school, joined his older brother in Washington, DC in 1954 while his brother attended Howard University. Instead of college, John picked up a gig playing piano for the house band at the Howard Theater where he met Lloyd Price, a popular R&B artist, who had recorded "Lawdy Miss Clawdy", a number one hit in 1952 with New Orleans legends Dave Bartholomew as arranger and Fats Domino sitting in on piano. John recalled, "I met Lloyd Price who was looking for a piano player. Someone told him I was in town and I had an audition. He asked me to play the introduction to 'Lawdy Miss Clawdy.' I played that and I had the gig." For the next five years, John played piano in Lloyd's band and enjoyed chart success with "Personality" (which he helped write, uncredited) , "Where Were You (On Our Wedding Day)" (a co-writing credit) and "Stagger Lee", all massive hits in jukeboxes, juke joints, and theaters. John reflected, "I learned everything with Lloyd. I was his 'strawboss' and the leader, and he dumped all this on me and that was an experience. I was dealing with musicians that thought I was 'tommin' or doing whatever Lloyd told me to do...Well, you're damn right I did, 'cause he was paying the money and I wanted the experience."

***Good Gracious! (1963) signed by John, Ben Dixon, Lou Donaldson***

All the while, the lure of the Hammond B3 organ was calling, "I liked the sound, it was something that just got into my ears. I kept hearing the sort of things a cat like Jimmy Smith could do with it, and I listened hard." So John began woodshedding on organ with drummer Ben Dixon, whom he had recruited to join Lloyd Price's band, and guitarist Grant Green. Dixon supplied him with Jimmy Smith vinyl and became a staunch ally and music advocate. Chops sufficiently strengthened, Patton, Green and Dixon joined "Sweet Poppa" Lou Donaldson and entered a New York City studio in 1962 to record Good Gracious!, one of my favorite albums (and covers!). This marked John's recording debut on organ and he remembered the Lou Donaldson experience fondly, "Hey, I played three and a half years with Lou. What can I say, he says 'Play the BLUES'...you don't mess with Lou 'cause Lou knows how to play Be Bop and Blues and Rhythm and Blues ... I am very fortunate that I got a chance to spend that much time with him and I can't thank him enough." At the initial session, they also recorded one of John's compositions, "Funky Mama", which became a soul jazz classic. Of the (then) controversial song title, Ben Dixon said, "John's tune, 'Funky Mama,' that was a big hit. But at that time, they wouldn't say 'Funky Mama' on the radio. They'd say 'Funny Woman.' It was a moral thing, you know.. It's not like today. I mean today, if you say 'Funky Mama,' everybody will say, 'yeah,' You know, at that time, even that kind of innuendo was not accepted...on the air."

Ben Dixon was no slouch as a musician and composer either. Dixon's most enduring composition, "Cantaloupe Woman", a percolating, soulful groover with great percussion and, of course, great Hammond B3 organ, was written as a response to Herbie Hancock's equally sublime "Watermelon Man." Grant Green, an extraordinary guitarist, left a treasure trove of recordings in his brief though prolific recording career. When they weren't in the studio recording or touring with Lou Donaldson, they often played together as a trio, an organ-guitar-drums juggernaut. Ben Dixon reminisced, "I know one thing. I know wherever we went, we burnt the place up. We burned it up. Oh man, we had some arrangements...we were really, really tight. We were like three in one... One arrangement I really remember was, we used to play (The Beatles) 'I Want To Hold Your Hand.' Shoot, the club would get quiet when we would play that, because dynamically we would bring it way down. It was a real, real, quiet, slick, bossa nova." Though a Grant Green recording of "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was released in 1966 featuring Larry Young on organ, Elvin Jones on drums, and Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, it does not reflect the potent organ-guitar-drums assault that was Patton-Green-Dixon. Sadly, no recordings of this song by this formidable trio are available, but Grant's influence loomed large, as John noted, "Musically, he was really there for me. The woodshedding that we did together, man, was great. We just clicked...clicked very, very well. I don't know what else to say, except thank God for Grant. He's one of my mentors for sure. Grant's hearing was so developed and he was such a natural. His prior learning, wherever it came from, God's gift that he had...it was just in place."

***Accent On The Blues (1970) signed by John, Leroy Williams***

I saw "Big" John and Ben Dixon perform at the Jazz Standard In New York City in the late 1990s near the end of John's life. Though a big sound emanated from his Hammond B3, physically, John was not particularly tall nor wide, maybe 5' 11', one hundred-ninety pounds. In an earlier interview, he explained the origin of his moniker, "Remember the (1961 Jimmy Dean) tune, 'Big Bad John'? ... yeah, well, that's what they started calling me, and at first, I didn't understand it, but I love it now. It's just a name. If it's going to help you, then boogie on up in there!" The band was tight and they played a mix of standards and originals, filling the room with their infectious swirl of grooves. The syncopation between Dixon's drums, the bass lines of Patton's pedals and his lyrical organ fills was impeccable and precise, sharpened by their forty-five years of playing together. Two highlights were Patton's "Funky Mama", full of joy and percolating rhythms, and Dixon's "Cantaloupe Woman", a simmering soul burner. After the show, near the bandstand, John and Ben were quiet and reflective as they signed the vinyl. They both commented on how much they enjoyed their time with "Sweet Poppa" Lou Donaldson and were grateful for the experience. I thanked them for their time, and especially their music.

My torrid love affair with the Hammond B3 continues. Now, put on some "Big" John Patton vinyl and, like he says, "then boogie on up in there!" Good gracious, it will definitely put a "jammie" on you.