NSHOS Hammond Organ Group

     In 2007 we produced a special event, a tribute to the well-known Columbia recording organist Ken Griffin. In 2008, we staged a second Ken Griffin celebration. Both of these events were very successful and well-attended with people coming in from other states as well as from our local area. More recently we were planning to have a special concert for Hammond organist Eddie Layton, however, after making two date changes for this event and noting that your response was not overly enthusiastic, we decided to take a vote at our last meeting and find out whom you, our audience, really would like us to feature in a special program.
     From a list of well known although deceased organists, the winner of your vote was not a musician who played Hammond organs, but the legendary theater organist George Wright. Two votes behind him was Ken Griffin. Now that we have this information, we will begin gearing up for two special concerts this next season to honor and imitate both George Wright and Ken Griffin as you have indicated that these are your favorites.
     For the George Wright event, we will use a real theater pipe organ, as George Wright's signature sound is the theater pipe organ, and some of the things he did are not really possible on the club's Hammond. The date, and also the location of this program will be announced on this website in another few weeks. We have three possible sites within our area where there are real theater pipe organs. The first step is to contact the appropriate people in charge of these instruments and see what arrangements can be made after which we can post the date and location on this website and also announce it at our next meeting.
     The Ken Griffin event will follow the George Wright Event a little later. For that we will use the Wurlitzer ES that we presently have on loan, and also a traditional tone wheel Hammond along with appropriate studio effects such as tape echo where necessary to achieve the greatest authenticity.
     It's interesting to note that the two winners of your vote for our next special concert feature are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Ken Griffin did all of his recorded playing on the three best known electronic organs of his day, the Hammond tonewheel instruments, the Wurlitzer electrostatic instruments, and the early Conn 700 series instruments. Ken's playing was very straightforward without too much in the way of fancy improvisations or exotic harmony although he did develop some very clever and novel arrangements for some of his playing and very creatively used tape echo and other studio effects to create the distinctive "Griffin Sound."
     Although Ken's playing sounds fairly simple, anyone who has tried to imitate him with any degree of success will soon realize that Ken's playing is not that easy to copy and get right. The true Griffin sound is very elusive and not achievable through casual playing. The well-known saying amongst certain people interested in pops music on the electronic organ that "All you need to do to imitate Ken Griffin is to play You Can't Be True, Dear in the key of G on a Hammond," is simply not true.
     George Wright, on the other hand, did just about all of his well-known recording on various theater pipe organs. He developed many very creative improvisations and derived a number of extremely interesting sounds and effects from the instruments he played. His playing was extremely orchestral, and his arrangements of popular songs rival the arrangements of the best bands and orchestras of his time. Frequently, he would duplicate, sometimes with uncanny accuracy an entire well-known orchestral score, literally following the printed musical arrange-ment and bringing in all of the appropriate instrument sounds as necessary.

The North Suburban
Home Organ Society

HAMMOND ORGAN

Its PERFORMANCE and MUSIC

The North Suburban Home Organ Society

HAMMOND ORGAN

Its PERFORMANCE and MUSIC

The North Suburban
Home Organ Society