Further Reading
1st March 2024
Our Round-Up this week presents emotive Finnish jazz, a new turn for the British masters, some Dutch pizzazz and two organists, both alike in dignity but completely opposing in style...
Paul Taylor is an improvising pianist / electronics player based in North East England, who is often heard as a solo improviser. Here he turns his attention to two improvisations for Hammond organ, an instrument which allows him to explore his passions for both jazz and more progressive / kosmische styles.
The Hammond C3 organ at the erstwhile Sage Gateshead Music Centre (now The Glasshouse International Centre for Music) is a powerhouse of an instrument hidden in plain sight. Concealed in a corner of the basement labyrinth of studios and practice rooms, I've rarely heard or seen it played in earnest by anyone else.
Being privileged to work in an environment surrounded by music and instruments, it did not take me long to encounter this timeless box of tricks. Nor did I need much encouragement to uncover the keyboard, fire up the archaic starting motor and hear the mechanical whirr of the Leslie rotary speaker cabinet scythe through the air. And then to see what I could conjure up from the hidden recesses of the unfamiliar box of tricks.
Paul Taylor: Hammond C3 organ
