I Have a Hammond

You work for the things you have.  I have worked for my Hammond, and it began with my father.  As far back as I can remember we had a Hammond organ in the living room.  On McGougan Road in Fayetteville, North Carolina is when I think it appeared.  It was a spinet, although at the time I had no idea what it was.  It was a Hammond, and my father, the band director at Terry Sanford High School, used an old army trailer to haul it to Seven Mountains Restaurant to play some gigs.  It was a major ordeal to move it.  He made a custom wood ramp and a dolly, and the M rolled out the back door, down several sets of steps, and up the ramp into this rusted antique of a trailer.  Later this same trailer became a boat trailer, and with custom wood ribs it would hold our Minifish sailboat.  Once traveling to Wrightsville Beach these wooden ribs vibrated loose on the highway, and the boat took flight.  That is a slight exaggeration, but all of it was an adventure for him.  The Hammond M spinet sat in our foyer when we moved to Westchester Drive.  By this time a Leslie speaker appeared.  I think it came from McFayden Music store in Fayetteville, and it was a 145.  I never played this instrument much, because I was a pianist.  The century old mahogany Knabe baby grand in our living room was my instrument.  For twelve years I practiced on it, until my senior year of high school I gave a recital which included in its repertoire George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," Aram Khachaturian's "Toccata," and several other notable piano works.  I reckon I earned my piano stripes.  I never played the Hammond, because I didn't know how.  When I was required to record a demo tape of my keyboard skills for college, I sat down at this M and played some blues.  The M spinet only has one octave of bass pedals, although its tone generator is the same as an A, B, or C series Hammond.  It only had one 12" speaker in the console, which is not enough to fill a room.  We did have the Leslie, and roughly I knew how to operate both.  I played a little blues and hit some bass notes with my foot.  That was about it.  It didn't sound like much.  After venturing to Cowtown to work on my doctorate in composition at OSU, I got the Hammond bug.  There was an active organ scene there which after several years I stumbled upon.  Oh Joy!  as the song goes.  Holy mother of God, this instrument and its capabilities.  A full set of bass pedals, and with them the ability to play a bass line with your left hand.  At the time (in the ephemeral words of Dr. Ted McDaniel) which weren't ephemeral at all.  They really were, "At that time."  Ted was the director of Jazz Studies at OSU in addition to heading up the African American Studies program.  I didn't understand the significance of this until this year.  He was an expert in Black history, Blues, and other topics relating to jazz.  Also as did Dr. Dick Goodwin, he arranged the marching band shows.  Caramba!  Guys that do it all, and I mean have their fingers, many fingers, in the pie.  This is difficult with which to compete, but okay.  This is how one acquires a college level teaching position.  Hank Marr was the jazz piano professor at OSU.  He was a skilled Hammond aficionado, and played the BeJesus out of a B3.  He deserved this position, and along with it came a rich Columbus heritage of Hammond playing including Ben Patterson.  As I mentioned previously, I was bitten and smitten with the Hammond bug.  When I ventured back to "Nam" around 1994 I convinced my father to trade the "M" series spinet for a greater model Hammond.  Of course I wanted a "B," but Carl Greeson, the local Hammond peddler, arrived at our doorstep with a beautiful Mahogany A-100.  (I was disappointed, but my father was elated)  It was his money, the price required for the acquisition of this console organ.  It looked beautiful, and that was the major concern for my parents at this point in time.  We gave the "M" to a family friend who did not play, and Carl hauled the "A" into our foyer and hooked it up to the 145.  (The MME  switch never functioned correctly, because he rigged it to work with the 147 amp which was an non balanced unit)  The A,B, and C series Hammonds have AO-28 preamps with balanced G-G terminal outputs.  These are 180 degrees out-of-phase, and when used in conjunction with a 122 Leslie amplifier create a balanced signal which cancels noise.  Caramba!  It became my legacy later to convert our 145 to a 142 using this valuble attribute.  After I returned from working the cruise ship circuit, and because my father began to decline in health, this Hammond became my instrument all together.  He did not mind, because he mentored my my whole life in the field of music.  He trusted me completely, and my musical skills under his mentorship benefited us both.  I played in his band on three different instrument, piano, electric bass, and trumpet.  When I was in high school I became the first trumpet player in his band.  I worked hard for him.  We work hard for the things we have.  I have a Hammond.