Organ Grinder

The 1960s were the golden age for jazz organists: Hammond B-3 players like Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Jack McDuff and Dr. Lonnie Smith were the ones that put the soul in soul jazz. Organist Raphael Wressnig’s latest release “Organ Grinder" is true in spirit to his royal predecessors: Playing with a radiant energy Wressnig’s percussive and greasy Hammond sounds conjure dynamic, high-voltage music. His fluency in soul, funk, jazz and blues has garnered him the attention of an international claque of critics and multiple nominations over the past decade for both, the DownBeat Critics and Readers Polls as “Best Organ Player of the Year”. The original “Southern Fried Chicken” is a greasy organ blues and Wressnig is dealing from a deck of McGriff and McDuff-inspired lines and hooks while “Pilgrimage” is a wonderful composition by the late Lonnie Smith. He recorded his piece on Wressnig’s organ during an organ summit for the first time and now the Austrian organist is paying tribute to Dr.