List of jazz organists
Encyclopedia
This is an alphabetized list of notable musicians who play or played jazz organ.
Category is listed as: jazz
organist
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Category is listed as: jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
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- Brian AugerBrian AugerBrian Auger is a jazz and rock keyboardist, who has specialized in playing the Hammond organ.A jazz pianist, bandleader, session musician and Hammond B3 player, Auger has played or toured with artists such as Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Sonny Boy Williamson, Led Zeppelin, Eric Burdon...
- Count BasieCount BasieWilliam "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
- Carla BleyCarla BleyCarla Bley, née Borg, is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill , as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other...
- André BrasseurAndré BrasseurAndré Brasseur, is a Belgian keyboard player and organist.Brasseur has released many albums and singles in his own country, but internationally is best known for his double A sided single The Kid/Holiday, which was released on the CBS label in the UK...
- James BrownJames BrownJames Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
- Gary BrunotteGary BrunotteGary Brunotte is an American post-bop jazz musician, noted as a pianist, organist, music arranger, and composer....
- Milt BucknerMilt BucknerMilt Buckner was an American jazz pianist and organist, originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He was orphaned as a child, but an uncle in Detroit taught him to play...
- Mike CarrMike Carr (musician)Mike Carr, born Michael Anthony Carr in South Shields, County Durham, England is a jazz organist, pianist and vibraphonist...
- Clifton "Jiggs" Chase
- Call Cobbs, Jr.Call Cobbs, Jr.Call Cobbs, Jr. was an American jazz pianist, electric harpsichordist, and organist.-Biography:...
- Alice ColtraneAlice ColtraneAlice Coltrane, née McLeod was an American jazz pianist, organist, harpist, and composer.-Biography:...
- Tom CosterTom CosterTom Coster is an American keyboardist and composer. Detroit-born and San Francisco-raised, Coster played piano and accordion as a youth, continuing his studies through college and a productive five-year stint as a musician in the U.S...
- Wild Bill DavisWild Bill DavisWild Bill Davis was the stage name of American jazz pianist, organist, and arranger William Strethen Davis.Davis was born in Glasgow, Missouri...
- Lenny DeeLenny DeeLeonard George DeStoppelaire , better known as Lenny Dee, was a virtuoso organist who played many styles of music. His record albums were among the most popular of easy listening and space age pop organists of the 1950s through the early 1970s. His signature hit, Plantation Boogie, charted as a...
- Joey DeFrancescoJoey DeFrancescoJoey DeFrancesco is an American jazz organist, trumpeter, and vocalist. Down Beat's Critics and Readers Poll selected him as the top jazz organist every year since 2003.DeFrancesco was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania...
- 'Papa' John DeFrancescoJohn DeFrancesco'Papa' John DeFrancesco is an American jazz organist and vocalist, and father of Joey DeFrancesco and Johnny DeFrancesco....
(born 1940) - Barbara DennerleinBarbara DennerleinBarbara Dennerlein , is a hard bop and post-bop Hammond B3 organist.-Early years:At age 11, Dennerlein began playing electronic organ. After starting organ lessons, she learned to play the two manual organ with a bass pedalboard. After one and a half years of lessons she continued to study without...
- Rick DePiroRick DePiroRick DePiro, who is known by his stage name Ricky Dee, is an American Country singer-songwriter, notable and award winning jazz pianist, and popular/ jazz organist, and a music producer who has recorded and produced over twenty-five albums...
- Bill DoggettBill DoggettBill Doggett was an American jazz and rhythm and blues pianist and organist. He is best known for his tracks, "Honky Tonk" and "Hippy Dippy", and variously working with The Ink Spots, Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Jordan.-Biography:William Ballard Doggett was born in...
- Charles EarlandCharles EarlandCharles Earland was an American jazz composer, organist, and saxophonist in the soul jazz idiom.-Biography:...
- Georgie FameGeorgie FameGeorgie Fame is a British rhythm and blues and jazz singer and keyboard player. The one-time rock and roll tour musician, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still a popular performer, often working with contemporaries such as Van Morrison and Bill Wyman.-Early life:Fame took piano lessons from the...
- Chris ForemanChris ForemanChris Foreman , nicknamed Chrissy Boy, is an English guitarist, best known as a member of a second wave ska band, Madness.Foreman started Madness with Mike Barson and Lee Thompson in 1976...
- Jared GoldJared GoldJared Gold is a fashion designer of avant-garde American Gothic fashion.-Biography:Gold grew up in Idaho Falls and was already a child piano prodigy long before he discovered fashion design. In 1990 he attended the Piano Conservatory of Hawaii for a year and soon after took up the harpsichord....
- Larry GoldingsLarry Goldings-Life and career:Goldings was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His father was a classical music enthusiast, and Larry studied classical piano until the age of twelve. While in high school at Concord Academy, he attended a program at the Eastman School of Music. During this period Erroll Garner,...
- "Sir Julian" Gould
- Atsuko HashimotoAtsuko HashimotoAtsuko Hashimoto, is a jazz musician from Osaka, Japan who plays Hammond B-3 electronic organ and has performed in Japan and the United States. To date, she has recorded five albums of organ trio and organ quartet jazz.-Career:...
- Herbie HancockHerbie HancockHerbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
- Alan HavenAlan HavenAlan Haven is an English jazz organist.He is best known for his collaborations with John Barry in the James Bond films From Russia with Love and Goldfinger and in the Richard Lester film The Knack …and How to Get It...
- Milt HerthMilt HerthMilton "Milt" Herth was an American jazz organist, known for his work on the Hammond organ soon after it was introduced in 1935. Herth's work is available from his recordings of the 1930s and 1940s.-Biography:...
- Richard "Groove" HolmesRichard Holmes (organist)Richard Arnold "Groove" Holmes was an American jazz organist who performed in the hard bop and soul jazz genre...
- John HondorpJohn HondorpJohn Hondorp is a professor at the Enschede Conservatory. He was the first to teach hammond organ as a fully autonome jazz major....
- Wayne HorvitzWayne HorvitzWayne Horvitz is an American composer, keyboardist and record producer.-Biography:Horvitz, a "defiant cross-breeder of genres", has led the groups The President, Pigpen, Zony Mash, and the Four Plus One Ensemble...
- Keith JarrettKeith JarrettKeith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...
- Booker T Jones
- Wojciech KarolakWojciech KarolakWojciech Karolak is a notable Hammond B-3 organ player who refers to himself as "an American jazz and rhythm and blues musician, born by mistake in Middle Europe". He has also played saxophone and piano professionally.In 1958, he started working with the band the 'Jazz Believers' playing alto...
- Bruce KatzBruce KatzBruce Katz is an American musician, playing piano, organ and bass guitar. Since 1996, he has been on the faculty at the Berklee College of Music in Boston as an associate professor.-Biography:...
- Eddie LandsbergEddie LandsbergEddie Landsberg is a Tokyo-based, Philadelphia-born jazz organist, best known for his endeavours into jazz education and his "jazz evangelism", which has involved establishing jazz bandstands and educational clinics around the world, including Eddie's Lounge, his home base and jazz organ bar...
- Ed LincolnEd LincolnEd Lincoln, born Eduardo Lincoln Barbosa de Sabóia, is a Brazilian musician, composer and arranger known for a wide variety of styles. As a bassist, he was present at the earliest moments of bossa nova and as a Hammond organ player, he was foundational in establishing the sound of Brazilian jazz...
- Eddy LouissEddy LouissEddy Louiss is a French jazz musician.His primary instrument is the Hammond organ. As a vocalist, he was a member of Les Double Six of Paris from 1961 through 1963.He has worked with Kenny Clarke, René Thomas, and Jean-Luc Ponty...
- Jack McDuffJack McDuff"Brother" Jack McDuff was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio.-Career:...
- Jimmy McGriffJimmy McGriffJames Harrell McGriff was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who developed a distinctive style of playing the Hammond B-3 organ.-Early years and influences:...
- John MedeskiJohn MedeskiAnthony John Medeski is an American jazz keyboards player and composer. Medeski is a veteran of New York's 1990s avant-garde jazz scene and is known popularly as a member of Medeski Martin & Wood...
- Don Patterson
- John PattonJohn Patton (musician)John Patton , sometimes nicknamed Big John Patton, was a hard bop and soul jazz organist....
- Lucky PetersonLucky PetersonLucky Peterson is an American musician who plays contemporary blues, fusing soul, R&B, gospel and rock and roll. He plays guitar and keyboards...
- Trudy PittsTrudy PittsTrudy Pitts , born Gertrude E. Pitts, was an American soul jazz keyboardist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was known primarily for playing the Hammond B3 organ.-Biography:...
- Roy PowellRoy PowellRoy Powell is a British jazz pianist, organist and composer. He first came to wider recognition when his first CD A Big Sky was released in 1994, the Gramophone Jazz Good CD Guide 1997 calling it "extraordinarily accomplished"...
- Billy PrestonBilly PrestonWilliam Everett "Billy" Preston was a musician who gained notoriety and fame, first as a session musician for the likes of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and The Beatles, and later finding fame as a solo artist with hits such as "Space Race", "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing from...
- Alan PriceAlan PriceAlan Price is an English musician, best known as the original keyboardist for the English band The Animals, and for his subsequent solo work....
- Don PullenDon PullenDon Pullen was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed masterworks ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz...
- Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack
- Mel Rhyne
- Merl SaundersMerl SaundersMerl Saunders, was an American multi-genre musician who played piano and keyboards, favoring the Hammond B-3 console organ.-Biography:...
- Paul Schaffer
- Adam Scone
- Rhoda ScottRhoda ScottRhoda Scott is an African-American hard bop and soul jazz organist.The daughter of an AME minister, Scott spent much of her childhood in New Jersey, where she learned to play organ in the churches where her father served. Soon she herself was serving frequently as organist for youth and gospel...
- Shirley ScottShirley ScottShirley Scott was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist. She was most known for working with her husband, Stanley Turrentine, and with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis...
- Ethel SmithEthel SmithEthel Smith may refer to:* Ethel Smith * Ethel Smith -See also:* Ethel Smyth, composer and suffragist Ethel Smith may refer to:* Ethel Smith (organist) (1910-1996)* Ethel Smith (athlete) (1907-1979)-See also:* Ethel Smyth, composer and suffragist Ethel Smith may refer to:* Ethel Smith (organist)...
- Jimmy SmithJimmy Smith (musician)Jimmy Smith was a jazz musician whose performances on the Hammond B-3 electric organ helped to popularize this instrument...
- Johnny "Hammond" Smith
- "Dr." Lonnie SmithLonnie Smith (jazz musician)Dr. Lonnie Smith is a jazz Hammond B3 organist and pianist.-Biography:He was born in Lackawanna, New York, into a family with a vocal group and radio program. Smith says that his mother was a major influence on him musically, as she introduced him to gospel, classical, and jazz music...
- James TaylorJames Taylor QuartetThe James Taylor Quartet are a British four-piece jazz funk band who have become renowned for their live performances. They were formed by Hammond organ player James Taylor following the break-up of his former band The Prisoners in the wake of Stiff Records' bankruptcy...
- Sir Charles Thompson
- Akiko TsurugaAkiko Tsurugais a jazz composer, Hammond B-3 organist and pianist from Osaka, Japan. A graduate of the Osaka College of Music, she has resided in New York City since 2001.In addition to her solo work, she plays as a sideman in various groups in NYC.- Discography :...
- Paul WagnbergPaul WagnbergPaul Wagnberg is a Swedish-Norwegian jazz musician, mostly known for his jazz-organ playing. He also sings and plays the piano in addition to composing....
- Fats WallerFats WallerFats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
- Robert WalterRobert Walter (musician)Robert Walter is a keyboard player specializing in instrumental soul jazz on the Hammond B3 organ. He is a founding memberof The Greyboy Allstars, and has since led his own band Robert Walter's 20th Congress.-Biography:...
- Walter Wanderley
- Baby Face WilletteBaby Face WilletteRoosevelt "Baby Face" Willette was a hard bop and soul-jazz musician most known for playing Hammond organ. It is unclear whether he was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, or New Orleans, Louisiana...
- Reuben WilsonReuben WilsonReuben Wilson is a jazz organist. He performs soul jazz and acid jazz, and is best known for his title track "Got To Get Your Own"He was born in Mounds, Oklahoma and his family moved to Pasadena when he was 5....
- Klaus WunderlichKlaus WunderlichKlaus Wunderlich was a German musician.Wunderlich was born in Chemnitz and died in Engen from a heart attack....
- Larry YoungLarry Young (jazz)Larry Young Larry Young Larry Young (also known as Khalid Yasin (Abdul Aziz) (October 7, 1940 in Newark, New Jersey—March 30, 1978 in New York City) was an American jazz organist and occasional pianist. Young pioneered a modal approach to the Hammond B-3 (in contrast to Jimmy Smith's...
- Joe ZawinulJoe ZawinulJosef Erich Zawinul was an Austrian-American jazz keyboardist and composer.First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with...
- Dan FogelDan Fogel (musician)-Biography:Jazz organist Dan Fogel was born June 21, 1948, in Atlantic City, NJ. Fogel purchased his first organ by age 11. At age 13 he joined jazz drummer Harvey Mason to form the “house” band at the Wonder Gardens....