The REAL Sound of The Hammond Organ...

A note from Cliff: 

Many who have visited with me about Hammond and Viscount organs know I often jokingly say, "Will the REAL sound of the Hammond Organ please stand up."  I say this because so many of the players today are younger than the vintage organs they play and, for  many, the only reference they have for how a Hammond should sound is the instrument (or instruments) that they have been playing...instruments that are 60, 70, and 80 years old!  This has fostered the development of relatively new assumptions about what constitutes "the sound" of a Hammond Organ. In addition, present day use of the Hammond Organ now overshadows the instrument's original purpose as introduced to the world in 1934-1935,  Is that a bad thing?  Absolutely not!  But...we need to be mindful of the complete legacy of the Hammond Organ. What follows is the first of several articles I will no doubt write over the coming months.

An Instrument to Compete With The Pipe Organ

As a Hammond full-line dealer with nearly 25 years in business, one of the frustrations I have found is that the majority of the music offered in the marketing of Hammond console organs and even the "clonewheel" Hammond copies is almost exclusively limited to either jazz, rock, or gospel (especially jazz) all of which are great to listen to but barely scratch the surface of what a Hammond Organ can actually do. As a result, the Hammond Organ is oftentimes dismissed and not even considered "appropriate" for use in churches where a classical liturgy of music is employed. The irony in this is that the sounds most associated with jazz, rock, and gospel organ are sounds discovered by Hammond organists over the past 90 years and were not really considered by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert as they worked to ready their invention for the U.S. Patent Office. Their goal was to create an organ that could compete in sound with the pipe organ. In fact, within 18 months of the introduction of the original Hammond Model A, the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Hammond asserting that their Model A could not be called an organ! This resulted in a long series of official hearings and listening tests where the $1,250 Hammond Model A was compared to a $75,000 Skinner pipe organ. In the end, it was determined that the average listener could not differentiate between the pipe organ and the Hammond organ. Even professional organists and music professors were often mistaken. By 1938 the FTC had admitted defeat. Hammond could call their instrument an organ.

So, if the original intent behind the development of the Hammond Organ was to create an affordable alternative to the classical pipe organ, what happened? For many years the Hammond was used in the traditional pipe organ/classical organ style. However, the flexibility of the Hammond to not only duplicate many of the pipe organ's sounds (diapason, flute, reeds and strings) but also to create new sounds unique to the Hammond Organ actually established an entirely new genre of organ known exclusively as "the Hammond Organ" sound. The organ we hear at baseball and hockey games is the Hammond Organ as are the organ sounds we associate with jazz and gospel music. But remember: Those sounds that we now know so well actually overshadow the extent of the Hammond Organ's full capability.  And, those sounds were discovered and developed by organists decades after the Federal Trade Commission admitted that the Hammond Organ was every bit as much an "organ" as the Skinner pipe organ.

I've heard some say, "but today's Hammond Organ is different from the Hammond Organ 'back in the day.'" No, actually it is not. In fact, today's instruments are very much the same. If we take an original Hammond Model A organ and play a few notes with a specifically defined drawbar combination and then apply that very same drawbar combination to any current production Hammond Organ (the New B-3, A-162, B-162, XK-5/A-3 organ, XK-7D Classic Organ, etc.) and play the same notes without adding any effects (vibrato, chorus, Leslie, reverb, etc.) the sound will be essentially identical to that of the original Hammond Model A which, in turn, was difficult for many to differentiate from the Skinner pipe organ.

What follows are some recordings of various Hammond Organs playing traditional hymns as well as classical organ literature and, for the purpose of making the case above, a few gospel tracks are included as well. Remember: whether it is the A-162, the New B-3, the XK-7D or a well preserved vintage B, C, E, or R Series organ, the basic pipe organ sounds are there as they always have been.

Chorale from Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 731 "Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier"(Dearest Jesus, We are here).  The organist is Anthony Montagno playing a vintage Hammond C-2.  This could easily have been a Model A or the current A-162.

"What a Friend We Have In Jesus"  Again, this is Anthony Motagno on his church's C-2 Hammond Organ.  About half way in, he adds the Leslie Speaker on Tremolo.  This could easily be the modern Hammond A-162, New B-3, or any other current Hammond model.

J.S. Bach Cantata BWV 147, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" played on the Hammond A-100 by Rein de Jong but it could easily be any current model of Hammond Organ.

"Just As I Am"  This was recorded some years ago on an instrument sharing the same sound engine as the A-162/B-162 Organs.  It could easily have been a vintage C-2 or A-100.

J. S. Bach Trio Sonate III BWV 527  Recorded on a Hammond A-100, this is Rein de Jong again who, by the way, is equally adept at playing "A Whiter Shade of Pale" or "I'll Be Over You" by Toto.

"I'll Fly Away" Recorded by Deryl Winston, Sr. on the Hammond Portable New B-3.  Seriously, this could be duplicated on any early Hammond Organ if connected to a Leslie Speaker.  A drummer or drum machine would be needed as well.  My point is that the same Hammond Organ that can play Bach and sound like a pipe organ can also do this...with the right player.