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48 albums · 1955–2018

The Hammond organ, from soul jazz and Stax to bossa nova, reggae and British rock

· 1 min read · by 1001 Albums

A Hammond B-3 in a wooden case, its two keyboards with rows of drawbars and a pedalboard below, in a museum
A wooden Hammond organ with two keyboards and a short pedalboard beside a tall wooden Leslie cabinet, in front of a yellow curtainRhoda Scott seen from above and behind, playing a Hammond organ on an open-air stage
A Hammond B-3 made in Chicago in 1958, in the Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix. Photo: bobistraveling, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · A Hammond organ and a Leslie speaker at Rockfield Studios, near Monmouth in Wales, 2024. Photo: Steve Knight, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Rhoda Scott at the Au grès du Jazz festival in Alsace, 2023. Photo: Le Commissaire, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Hammond organ was first sold in 1935 by Laurens Hammond's company in Chicago. A motor turns metal tonewheels past magnetic pickups, and drawbars mix the overtones of each note; played through a Leslie cabinet, whose horn spins, the sound swirls. The B-3, made from 1954 to 1974, is the best known model.

Churches bought it in place of a pipe organ, and it became a sound of gospel. Bill Doggett played it in R&B. From 1956 Jimmy Smith's records for Blue Note made it a jazz instrument, and Shirley Scott, Larry Young and Lonnie Smith followed him. Booker T. Jones played it at Stax, Walter Wanderley in bossa nova and Jackie Mittoo at Studio One in Kingston; in London Georgie Fame, Brian Auger and Jon Lord took it into R&B and rock.

The list has 48 records from 1955 to 2018; Jackie Mittoo's is a later collection of his Studio One sides, dated by the year it came out. Records where the organ plays behind a singer are left out, and so are pipe and theatre organs. About 36 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

What it sounds like

A medley on a Hammond Model A of 1935, through a Leslie 122, its first three minutesOrgangrinder010 (Nathaniel C. Wilcox), Hammond organ

Recording: Organgrinder010 (Nathaniel C. Wilcox), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

By genre

Soul & R&B 31%Jazz 21%Rock 12%Other 36%
  • Soul & R&B 31%
  • Jazz 21%
  • Rock 12%
  • Other 36%

The genres named most: organ, jazz, soul jazz, jazz-funk, r&b, rock.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 6 countries: United States 35, United Kingdom 9, Brazil 1, France 1, Germany 1 and 1 more. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

More lists

Lists of Instruments first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.

29 albums · 1976–2024

The kora of Mali, the harp-lute of the jeli

· 1 min read

The kora is the harp-lute of the jeli, the griots of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia: 21 strings over a large calabash covered in cowhide, played with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands.

World 89%Blues 3%Classical 3%Other 5%
  • World 89%
  • Blues 3%
  • Classical 3%
  • Other 5%

Read and see the list