Today I read a post from organist Lee Ridgway about an article in the Boston Globe. He quoted from the article, “Vital organs” in today’s paper:

“There’s only ever been a scant few acknowledged masters of the … organ …
So few, in fact, that when one leaves the scene … aficionados have been left to wonder whether the instrument has a future in … at all.”

He was not talking about church organists but jazz organists who play the Hammond B3. Three living masters of that genre: Joey DelFrancesco, Larry Coryell, and Jimmy Cobb are playing at a local jazz club in Cambridge. The article also mentions the Hammond’s role in churches, implying mainly Black and gospel, or working-class, churches.

Ridgway concludes “So we in the church pipe-organ field are not the only ones wondering about the future.”

Did you know that the first organ I ever played was a Hammond?