Hammond Organ fans

[Michael R]

Anyone who, like me, is a big fan of the Hammond Organ sound may be interested in this weeks "The Organist Entertains" on BBC Radio 2. The whole programme is dedicated to the Hammond Organ with some nice jazz pieces rather than the usual stuff!! It is available on the BBC website or iPad app for the next 4 weeks.

Michael

[Mike Bracchi]

Hiya Michael,

I caught the show myself last night, I was pleasantly surprised at the varied choice of Hammond styles and sounds - it made a change to the usual 'jimmy smith' style which most Hammond artists/radio presenters seem to gravitate towards and to which I grew really tired of many years ago ....

It was nice to hear my friend Carol Williams, who spent many years practicing on a her 1937 Hammond Concert E for her doctorate, performing a great version of Tico Tico on the digital Hammond
(I ended up owning Carol's Hammond Concert E for several years before I sold it to a collector in Mid-Germany ... but that's another story)

I think my favorite track last night was 'Drown In My Own Tears' by Doug Riley ...

The ratings of the OE would undoubtedly shoot up if they aired more of the electronic stuff and less of all the bells 'n' whistles stuff - what do you reckon

A great finish by Howard Beaumont made the whole program very enjoyable ... something I didn't ever think I would be saying about the BBC's Organist Entertains program

All the best Michael

Best regards ...

Mike

[Michael R]

I think the BBC are determined to hold on to their traditional BBC radio image with this programme for as long as possible. I don't mind listening to the odd 'light classical' pipe organ piece as Nigel Ogden calls them but surely it's time they brought the programme up to date? There was an online petition a few months ago about this and the last I heard was that the BBC thought that the current content of the programme was what the majority ot the programme's listeners wanted to hear!! But what about all the organists/keyboard players that don't listen to the programme anymore but would do if they included much more electronic organ and dare I say it, even electronic keyboard music!!! But I think those who think they know best at the BBC will take a lot of convincing to make these changes. I actually thought I heard the words "midi" and "synthesiser" mentioned last night but I think I must have misheard him!!

Michael