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Jimmy McGriff

Organ master Jimmy McGriff may have studied formally at Juilliard and at Philadelphia's Combe College of Music, but there's nothing fancy about his music. It's basic to the bone, always swinging and steeped in blues and gospel. McGriff's brand of jazz is about feeling. "That's the most important thing," he says.

Blues has been the backbone of most of the major jazz organists, including Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff, but throughout his 42-year recording career, McGriff has stuck closer to the blues than any of them. "People are always classifying me as a jazz organist, but I'm more of a blues organ player," he insists. "That's really what I feel."

McGriff's recordings of "I've Got a Woman" and "All About My Girl" were r&b and jukebox staples during the Sixties. With McGriff Avenue, his fourteenth album for Milestone (counting the five he's cut as co-leader with Hank Crawford), the Hammond organ grinder remains true to the blues grounding for which he's famous. The way things turned out, McGriff Avenue was not just another record date for the organist and his sidemen, as producer Bob Porter recounts in the CD notes. Porter had booked a noon session at Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey studio for September 11th, 2001, but that morning he quickly realized—especially since bridge and tunnel access to and from Manhattan was cut off soon after the World Trade Center towers were hit—that the session was not going to take place as scheduled.

When the record date was rescheduled for six weeks later, some personnel adjustments were necessary. Although Bill Easley, Ronnie Cuber, and bassist Wilbur Bascomb were able to make both days of recording, Purdie was replaced on the second day by Don Williams. Guitarist Rodney Jones couldn't make the first session, but he contributed the funky title track (and was ably replaced by Melvin Sparks-Hassan).

Saxophonist Gordon Beadle, a veteran of Duke Robillard's band, is new to the McGriff orbit, but the other players have extensive histories with the organist. The great drummer Bernard Purdie has appeared on most of McGriff's Milestone discs, and Don Williams has been a member of McGriff's touring band for years. Likewise Rodney Jones, Ronnie Cuber, Melvin Sparks-Hassan, Wilbur Bascomb, and Bill Easley are all McGriff familiars who deliver the "gospel/blues-kinda flavor" the leader finds much to his liking. The performances on the McGriff shuffle "All About My Girl," Jimmy Forrest's "Soul Street," and the sanctified "America, The Beautiful" make that absolutely clear.

James Harrell McGriff was born on April 3, 1936 in Philadelphia, long the capital of the jazz organ world. Such seminal jazz organists as Milt Buckner and Wild Bill Davis frequently passed through town, and it was there that Jimmy Smith laid the groundwork for modern jazz organ. Other outstanding organists associated with the City of Brotherly Love include Doc Bagley, Shirley Scott, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Joey DeFrancesco, and Charles Earland. In fact, Earland, who had played saxophone on McGriff's very first recording, a 1959 single on the White Marsh label titled "Foxy Due," learned the organ from McGriff.

Although both his mother and father were pianists, McGriff started out on bass and saxophone, later picking up drums, vibes, and piano. He served as an MP during the Korean War and spent two and a half years as a Philadelphia policeman. While on the force, he moonlighted as a bassist at Pep's Showboat, playing behind blues singer Big Maybelle and other stars of the Fifties. The lessons he learned as a bass player would later turn up in his signature organ style, which is marked by strong, swinging bass patterns.

After leaving law enforcement, McGriff turned his focus to organ and studied locally at Combe and in New York City at Juilliard, as well as privately with Jimmy Smith, "Groove" Holmes, Milt Buckner, and classical organist Sonny Gatewood. Of greater importance to McGriff's musical development, however, were his experiences as a young man at Philadelphia's Eastern Star Baptist Church. "They talk about who taught me this and who taught me that, but the basic idea of what I'm doing on the organ came from the church," he says. "That's how I got it, and I just never dropped it."

In 1962, while McGriff was performing in Trenton, New Jersey, a scout from a tiny record label called Jell was struck with the organist's arrangement of "I've Got a Woman" and offered him a contract. As McGriff's single was taking off, Sue Records in New York purchased the master and it became a smash, peaking at No. 5 on Billboard's r&b chart and at No. 20 on the pop list. With that and such subsequent Sue singles as "All About My Girl," "M.G. Blues," and "Bump De Bump," the organist staked out a musical turf all his own, somewhere between the jazz of Jimmy Smith and the r&b of Booker T. & the MGs. After leaving Sue, McGriff recorded prolifically for such labels as Solid State, Blue Note, Capitol, United Artists, Groove Merchant, and JAM. He also cut two albums with the great blues singer Junior Parker.

Renewed interest in the Hammond organ over the past several years has substantially increased the demand for McGriff's music. "People that didn't listen to organ things before listen now," he says. "I'm playing jobs that ordinarily I wouldn't play."

McGriff had used a Hammond B-3 organ at the onset of his career but in recent years has been playing a modified model known as a Hammond XB-3. "The one I got is special 'cause it's built for me," he says. "I can separate the top manual against the bottom manual. I get strings on it, and I get a different kind of bass."

With McGriff Avenue, Jimmy McGriff serves up another satisfying set of the type of blues, swing, funk, and gospel-derived sounds for which he's known and loved. It's music from the soul that, as always, feels mighty good. Show less

Jimmy McGriff: Nobody Else But Himself

by Andrew Velez
May 16, 2006

For two evenings in April, Philadelphia-born Jimmy McGriff celebrated his 70th birthday with a gala gig at New York's Smoke. Wearing a cap reminiscent of the Beatles era, his bulky six-foot frame hunched over the organ, he radiated the intense concentration of a friendly Sumo wrestler. A professional musician since his early teens, he'd evolved firmly into his own groove by the 1970s. Some have labeled his music “acid jazz, but whatever it's called, McGriff knows what he's aiming for, ...

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Album Review

Jimmy McGriff: McGriff Avenue

Read "McGriff Avenue" reviewed by Joel Roberts

by Joel Roberts
March 18, 2004

Jimmy McGriff was originally slated to record this album on September 11, 2001 at Rudy van Gelder's studio in New Jersey, but the tragic events of that day led to an obvious need for rescheduling. As a result, the session was split in two, with somewhat different lineups at each. However, fans of the organist's trademark down-and-dirty B-3 blues and funk can rest assured: despite the complications, the results are pure McGriff. McGriff assembled a top notch lineup ...

222

Album Review

Jimmy McGriff: Straight Up

Read "Straight Up" reviewed by Douglas Payne

by Douglas Payne
November 1, 1998

Despite all-star accompanists and sterling production, organist Jimmy McGriff's Milestone output (since 1983) has more of a lounge-combo sound than the wicked blues he cut for Sue in 1962-65 or the heady grooves of his Groove Merchant and LRC records of the 1970s. Still, Straight Up, the organ grinder's eleventh Milestone recording, occasionally moves out of the lounge and offers its share of interesting moments.Here, McGriff stacks the front line with the double-barreled reeds of regular ...

125

Album Review

Jimmy McGriff: Let's Stay Together

Read "Let's Stay Together" reviewed by Douglas Payne

by Douglas Payne
September 1, 1997

Between 1966 and 1978, producer Sonny Lester recorded around 30 of organist Jimmy McGriff's albums for the Solid State, Groove Merchant and LRC labels. During this productive period, McGriff recorded blues and ballads with small groups, swing jazz with all-star big bands, organ battles with Groove Holmes and funky disco outings with various electronic keyboards. Lester has kept this music available on CD through his LRC label—known for its below-budget prices, cheesy cover art and hodge-podge selections. For whatever reason, ...

391

Album Review

Jimmy McGriff: The Dream Team

by Douglas Payne
April 1, 1997

Jimmy McGriff returns to Milestone (after a brief sojourn to Telarc) for a better-than-average outing on The Dream Team. This is as good as it gets -- at least lately. McGriff, an inventive and exciting blues and funk organist, spent the 1980s on Milestone and produced maybe one exciting performance -- “River's Invitation" from 1987's Steppin' Up (with frequent collaborator Hank Crawford). When he strayed to the small label Headfirst in 1991, he got down (and hip) with the terrific ...

218

Album Review

Jimmy McGriff: Electric Funk

by Douglas Payne
March 1, 1997

This 1969 Sonny Lester production was one nearly hopelessly lost slab of solid funk. It often popped up in cut-out bins when records were still waxed. When used-record stores started disappearing, beauties like this started vanishing too. But Blue Note's blessed Rare Groove series has exhumed all 32 minutes of this hard-hitting fon-kee gem (and, to its credit, retained the original but dated cover art too). Acid jazzers are probably already familiar with “The Bird Wave," which appeared on the ...

Recording

Backgrounder: Jimmy McGriff - Step 1

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
February 24, 2024

Philadelphian Jimmy McGriff began as a pianist but fell in love with the organ after hearing Richard “Groove" Holmes play the Hammond B3 at his sister's wedding. He bought his first organ in 1956, spent six months at New York's Juilliard School of Music and then studied the organ privately with Milt Buckner, Jimmy Smith and Sonny Gatewood. He began leading an organ combo in 1960. Step 1 was recorded for producer Sonny Lester at Capitol Records in 1970. The ...
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Recording

Escape To The Alluring Sounds Of Vintage Exotica On "Technicolor Paradise: Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Exotic Delights" On May 25

Source: conqueroo
May 4, 2018

In the late ’50s to the mid-’60s, somewhere between Elvis’ last Ed Sullivan Show appearance and the Beatles’ U.S. invasion, a strange musical movement surfaced in America seemingly from some fantasy island in the South Pacific. Known as Exotica, the music blended together wildly disparate musical styles—easy listening and lounge; jazz and surf—to concoct a fizzy colorful sound that felt both marvelously mysterious and delightfully fun. While originally a rather short-lived phenomenon, Exotica (and its stars, such as Martin Denny, ...
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Video / DVD

Jimmy McGriff: Late 1969

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 13, 2016

In the 1960s, organist Jimmy McGriff had a more pointed attack on the keyboard than many Hammond organists of the period. His playing was percussive and funky, with a heavy dose of the blues. McGriff was childhood friends with organ pioneer Jimmy Smith, and organist Richard “Groove" Holmes gave him lessons. He also studied at the Juilliard School of Music and with Smith and Milt Buckner among others. In the 1960s, McGriff became the house organist at clubs in Philadelphia, ...
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Performance / Tour

Tribute to Legendary Jimmy McGriff

Source: All About Jazz
June 22, 2009

Creole Restaurant & Music Supper Club Proudly Presents Jazz: The Legacy Series Continues TRIBUTE TO THE LEGENDARY JIMMY McGRIFF

June 26th and 27th 8:00pm & 10:00pm Reuben Wilson, Organ Melvin Sparks, Guitar Bill Easley, Sax Vince Ector, Drums

Creole Restaurant and Music Supper Club continues to invigorate the Harlem Jazz scene proudly presenting a Tribute To The Legendary Jimmy McGriff with Reuben Wilson, Melvin Sparks, Bill Easley, and Vince Ector as part ...
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Performance / Tour

Creole Restaurant & Music Supper Club Proudly Presents Jazz: The Legacy Series Continues Tribute to the Legendary Jimmy McGriff June 26th and 27th

Source: Ann Forster
June 17, 2009

Creole Restaurant and Music Supper Club continues to invigorate the Harlem Jazz scene… proudly presenting a Tribute To The Legendary Jimmy McGriff with Reuben Wilson, Melvin Sparks, Bill Easley, and Vince Ector as part of its Jazz Legacy Series – on Friday and Saturday, June 26th and 27th at 8:00 and 10:00 PM at Creole, 2167 Third Avenue, Corner of 118th Street, NY, NY 10035. Jimmy McGriff’s distinctive style of playing the Hammond B-3 organ established him as one of ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Jimmy McGriff

Source: Michael Ricci
April 3, 2009

All About Jazz is celebrating Jimmy McGriff's birthday today!

JAZZ MUSICIAN OF THE DAY Jimmy McGriff

Organ master Jimmy McGriff may have studied formally at Juilliard and at Philadelphia\'s Combe College of Music, but there\'s nothing fancy about his music. It\'s basic to the bone, always swinging and steeped in blues and gospel... more

Website | Videos | Articles

Follow Jimmy McGriff @ AAJ

Put AAJ's Musician of the Day ...
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134

Obituary

Jimmy McGriff, Blues Organist Crossed Musical Lines

Source: Michael Ricci
May 27, 2008

Jimmy McGriff, the acclaimed blues organist, who scored his first hit in the 1960s with an instrumental arrangement of “I've Got a Woman," then continued to record hard-swinging grooves that appealed to audiences across musical boundaries, died Saturday at a nursing home in New Jersey. He was 72. The cause of death was not known but was believed to be heart failure, said his wife, Margaret McGriff. McGriff was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis many years ago. Though sometimes described as ...
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153

Obituary

Jimmy McGriff Organist Dies

Source: All About Jazz
May 26, 2008

Jimmy McGriff must have had a big crayon box because the great organist colored his music with so many shades of blue.

McGriff, who died Saturday May 24th, passed after a very long illness with MS. He grooved as hard as any organist I know. I wonder whether there's ever been a song title that accurately reflected an artist's work as well as “Groove Grease" from McGriff's album of the same name. And McGriff's funky licks on the title track ...
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Obituary