B3Player Issue 003

B3 Player
Digital Download Magazine www.B3Player.com
Tony
Monaco “I’ll Remember Jimmy”
From the “East to West” CD
B3 Renaissance Man Transcription, MP3, Midi
Jazz Corner Organ Bassment

Comping and Soloing 36 Bassline Modules
Tony Monaco Style for you to piece together
Rock Corner New Release Interviews

Tom Costner's Chord Organic Vibes – Joey DeFrancesco
Progressions in Santana’s “Europa” Blue Bop – Linda Dachtyl
Tech Corner Gear

Refurbishing Vintage Groove Tubes SFX 100
Organ Pedals Keyboard Amp Review
April / May 2006 Issue 3 $9.95 USD

B3 Player April / May 2006
B3 Player Contents B3 Player

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Issue 003
From the Editor 3
Interviews
Publisher Dr Joho Music News 4
Editor Josiah Hoskins Musik Messe 2006
Copy Editor Kimberly Hoskins
Playing
Editorial Board Tony Monaco
Harvey Olsen Bag o’ Riffs 6
Lonnie Smith Tony Monaco, Jimmy Smith
Bill Brown Organ Bassment (Bass & Pedals) 16
Paul Homb Bassline Modules
Contributing Jazz Corner 21
Editors Scott Hawthorn Comping and Soloing Tony Monaco
Josiah Hoskins Style
Contributors Tony Monaco Rock Corner 28

Lonnie Smith Europa by Santana
Linda Dachtyl
Joey DeFrancesco Feature Article 33
Tony Monaco
Editorial Office B3 Renaissance Man
Send letters or contributions to:
PO Box 26534 In the Studio 65
Austin, Texas 78755 Linda Dachtyl
editor@b3player.com Recording “Blue Bop LDB3 and
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Copyright B3 Player 2006 All material is Tech Corner 71

subject to worldwide copyright protection and Refurbishing Vintage Organ Pedals
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SFX 100 Keyboard Amp Review 77
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Issue 3 Dr. Joho Music © 2006 All Rights Reserved 2

From the Editor

Josiah C. Hoskins (Dr Joho)
Interviews
Here at B3 Player, we work hard to listen to our readers and we have gotten a lot of great
feedback. One of the most consistent requests is for interviews. You readers want to meet
the great players, hear about their music and gear. Last issue we had our first interview –
the Red Young interview for the feature article. With the great feedback from that article
you will find five interviews in this issue. Of course we have the extended interview with
our feature artist, Tony Monaco. We also, interview the master technician Lonnie Smith.
We interview two artists about their new releases. The first is a newcomer to the scene
Linda Dachtyl. The second needs no introduction, Joey DeFrancesco.
So, keep the comments coming and we will continue work hard to make B3 Player the
organ players’ magazine of choice and always remember – keep the “B3 flame alive.”
Tony Monaco, B3 Renaissance Man

This issue features one of the top jazz organists performing and recording today, Tony
Monaco. But Tony doesn’t stop there, he is also a jazz organ educator. He owns a studio,
Columbus Sound, which caters to keyboard players. He recently formed a record label;
Chicken Coop Records to provide an outlet for keyboard centric CDs. In our feature article
there is an in depth interview that let’s you get inside the musical and business genius of
Tony Monaco.
What’s in this Issue

We introduce two new sections with this issue: Rock Corner and Tech Corner. In the Rock
Corner we discuss the organ playing of Tom Coster on one of Santana’s greatest hits,
Europa, and provide a transcription of Tom’s playing. In the Tech Corner, we visit with
master Hammond organ technician, Lonnie Smith, as he tells us how to properly refurbish
vintage Hammond organ pedals.
In Scott Hawthorn’s Organ Bassment, he provides us with 36 bassline modules that we
can use to create basslines that can be pieced together on the fly to provide basslines that
vary so as to not fall into the trap of the constantly repeating bassline.
As mentioned above our feature artist is Tony Monaco. We include a transcription of “I’ll
Remember Jimmy” from his new album East to West. Of course, we include the MP3,
MIDI, and sheet music. In the Jazz Corner we examine examples of Tony’s comping and
soloing styles.
In the Gear section we discuss the latest on the B3 clones from Hammond-Suzuki, Clavia
and Native Instruments. We also review the new SFX 100 stereo keyboard amp from
Groove Tubes.
So, read on, keep pulling those drawbars and most of all keep the B3 flame alive!

News
Musik Messe 2006

Spring is a great time of the year and Musik Messe 2006 took advantage by producing
another exciting show. The big new news is the introduction of the Nord Stage Compact by
Clavia which uses the waterfall keyboard of the Nord Electro. Most of the news deals with
what excites gear hounds – SHIPPING! So here’s the scoop…
Hammond-Suzuki
Hammond-Suzuki introduces yet another new product – the XM-2 Drawbar Sound
Module!
The XM-2 uses the XK-3 VASE III sound engine. See the Gear Section on B3 Clones for
more details.
In line with the timing of Musik Messe the long anticipated Hammond-Suzuki XK-1 and Pro
XK-System are both shipping. Some stores are already reporting sales and Dr Joho
personally has a Pro XK-System in transit from Hammond-Suzuki.
www.hammondorganco.com

Clavia
Clavia introduces a “crossover” keyboard at the show called the Nord Stage Compact. The
new keyboard has all the powerful features and the same quality sounds of the Nord Stage
76/88 note keyboards, except it has the 73 note semi-weighted "waterfall" (square front)
keyboard from the Nord Electro. The keyboard will weigh in at just under 10kg (9.7kg)
making it compact and lightweight.
www.clavia.se
Native Instruments
Native Instruments has provided an update to the B4 II. The update is 2.0.2 and details of
the update are in B3 Clone section. www.native-instruments.com
Motion Sound
According to John Fisher the new version of the Pro-3T called the Pro-3X is shipping.
The new version of the Pro-3T is providing a lower weight, lower cost version of the
Leslie 2101. Key features are a new type of preamp that is solid-state (no tubes) with a
variable bias state that allows one to choose between a Class A, AB or B circuitry. The Pro-
3X also has more power. www.motion-sound.com
Creamware
Creamware announced at Musik Messe 2006 that the B4000 – their portable and faithful
reproduction of the legendary Hammond™ B3™ tonewheel organ – is now shipping. The
B4000 is the third ASB ("Authentic Sound Box") product. See Issue 002 of B3 Player for the
product details presented at NAMM 2006. www.creamware.com
Pari.E
One surprise at Musik Messe was the reappearance of the Pari.E line of electromechanical
tonewheel organs. In the 1970’s Pari.E produced a number of models with varying success.
Now they are back in force with a new product called the K-61. Pari.E says that while they
used the same basic techniques, they have used modern technologies to make those
techniques work both from a musical aspect and a reliability aspect. We will have to wait
and see as the reports come in on the all aspects of this new attempt at reproducing the
elusive B3 sound in a modern electromechanical organ.

Playing
Bag o’ Riffs
By Josiah C. Hoskins
More “Real” CLASSIC RIFFS

In our Bag o’ Riffs series we examine some of the riffs of the coolest organ cats out there.
So, let’s start riffing. In this issue we will focus on our featured artist, Tony Monaco, who
has lots of riffs worth learning. Also, we will start a new B3 Player exclusive by having at
least one Jimmy Smith riff in every issue.
JOS Hobo Flats Riff
The first Jimmy Smith riff that we will examine was used a lot by Jimmy and is still used by
all pros and aspiring organists.
The suggested Organ and Leslie Settings are:
NOTE: In this example the riff is performed on the upper manual.

In examining the settings, notice that the Leslie is on stopped. The upper manual is using
the usual JOS (Jimmy Smith) settings, 888, however the percussion is OFF and the Vibrato /
Chorus is set to C3.
NOTE: for the current drawbar setting the red dot shows the location of Middle C
The riff begins with the classic slide into a double stop of the V-I here C and F. So, you
quickly hit the B and F with the 3rd and 5th fingers of the right hand (some use the 2nd and
5th fingers) sliding the 3rd (or 2nd) finger up to the C. Note that this is one of the trickier
slides. In the easy slides the 3rd (or 2nd) finger is sliding from a black key to a white key,
e.g., in the key of G, you would go from Db, G to D, G. But here we slide from a white key
to another white key which is trickier and requires more finger dexterity.

Next there is a quick single note F, followed by 3 double stops (two notes hit together), Ab-
C, Bb-D, Ab-C.
These two parts make up “the riff” that you will hear over and over. The notes stuck on the
end vary, but the beginning part is very recognizable.
Here is the sheet music. Licks like this one can look daunting in standard musical notation.
In fact the lick is daunting. But, start out at a slow tempo. Over time work up to a tempo of
90 BPM. Practice this example with a metronome, drum machine or a drummer.
JOS Hobo Flats Riff in F

Transcribed by Josiah C. Hoskins
Here is how the midi looks, which can be viewed as tab (used by guitarist to show the fret
positions) for keyboards. The keyboard on the left shows the key that is being struck. The
bars at the right show where the key is struck in the measure and for how long.
One of the best ways to sharpen your technique is to play on a midi keyboard and to view
what you play in. You will immediately see how “clean” your technique is.
Soundfiles of the “JOS Hobo Flats

Riff in F”, Ex01.mp3 and Ex01.mid
can be found at www.b3player.com

Tony Monaco II-V-I Riff
Most jazz standards and blues make heavy use of the harmonic progression called II/V7
(pronounced, “2, 5”) or II/V7/I (pronounced, “2, 5, 1”). So, in any serious study of jazz
organ you will spend lots of time learning how to comp, play basslines, and to solo over the
II/V7/I harmonic progression.
For this example, taken from one of Tony’s renditions of “Midnight Special”, we are in the
key of G. We see that Tony uses the IIm7 (Am7), the V7 (D7), and the I (G7) chords to
harmonize the II/V7/I progression.
This riff is not for the light of heart. Although the BPM is only 100 the bulk of the riff is a
barrage of 32nd notes coming straight at you. I have also included the left hand bass and
pedal taps.
The best way to familiarize yourself with this riff is to listen. We provide four versions of the
riff in the soundfile Ex02.mp3: the solo by itself, the solo at half speed, all organ parts at
tempo, and all organ parts at half speed.
The suggested Organ and Leslie Settings are:
The upper manual has a clean Groove Holmes sound, 888 plus the whistle. The Leslie is
stopped and the lower manual has the typical Jimmy Smith Setting. The Chorus / Vibrato is
OFF.
As you start trying the riff yourself, start with a slow tempo and work to get the 32nd notes
smooth and evenly spaced. Then, as your fingers get used to the riff and build up some
muscle memory, gradually increase the tempo.

TM II-V7-I Riff
Used by permission from Tony Monaco

Soundfiles of the TM II-V7-I Riff

Ex02.mp3 and Ex02.mid can be
found at www.b3player.com

Tony Monaco Chord Sputter Riff
Tony Monaco uses a technique where there are a few very quick chord stabs that feel like
he is climbing a chord ladder at the speed of light then gently lands on the target chord. I
have always wondered how players got this sound and whether they were playing actual
chords or just “crushing” a set of convenient notes to get this effect.
These types of technique are very difficult to understand unless you can see them
(sometimes in slow motion) or someone tells you how to do it. Another way is to examine
the midi input by an artist capable of demonstrating the technique.
In the midi input by Tony below the upper manual is in maroon, the lower manual is in blue
and the pedals are in orange. The “chord stutter” technique is demonstrated twice: once in
the fourth beat of measure one and once in the fourth beat of measure two.
Basically there are three chord crushes and a tiny three note slide or glissando into the
target chord. The crushes here are all on the white keys. The key to making the technique
work is speed! The crushes happen so fast that they sound musical because what you hear
more is the upward movement and not the actual notes being played. In addition you
quickly land on the target chord which becomes the focus of the listeners’ attention. So, it is
like Ba, Ba, Baaa, Booooom.
The second example is just a bit more involved in that it starts from a target chord, glisses
down to the chord stutter and then on to the next target chord.
You can apply the description above to the sheet music on the next page. The mp3 example
will be presented both at the actual tempo of 100 BPM and a slower tempo for practice.
Notice the rhythmic content is as important as the notes in the chord stutter. This is an
advanced technique but it can have quite a dramatic effect on the dynamics of your playing
if you can add it to your bag of tricks. Like many other tricks it is best if not overused.

TM Chord Sputter Riff


The organ and Leslie settings for this technique are Tony’s Full Organ setting.
With an organ setting like this it is not the time to hold anything back. Let her rip!
Soundfiles of the TM Chord Sputter

Riff Ex03.mp3 and Ex03.mid can be

Tony Monaco Gospel Riff
Here is a classic Tony Monaco Gospel riff. The riff consists of a screaming intro run followed
by some soulful gospel chords played over the, what else, bass pedals.
The key is B flat and the tempo is really, really slow – 48 BPM. Playing slow and in time is
an art in itself. So, give yourself a little time to work on maintaining time at slow tempos.
The suggested organ and Leslie settings are what Tony calls his Shirley Scott setting.
We have all of the brown and white drawbars all the way out on the upper manual. We have
C3 chorus in combination with the Leslie speed set on FAST.
Start out with the chords first to get your timing established. Work on the intro run, slowly
at first, eventually working up to tempo. The single note run uses notes from the B flat
blues scale, so you might spend some time reviewing that scale and the fingerings that
work for you.
Let’s examine the midi to see how Tony plays this riff. First, notice how clean the notes are
and that there is space between the notes even though they are played quite rapidly.

TM Gospel Riff
Soundfiles of the TM Gospel Riff


Playing
The Organ Bassment
By Scott Hawthorn
Think Modularly, Play Swingingly!

Tired of playing the same basslines over and over? I will teach you some new two-measure
bassline modules, and a way to put them together to achieve lines that are interesting,
change direction, can be put-together while you play, and give a feeling of spontaneity.
This lesson is going to be difficult in that it requires a lot of work, both memorization and
thought, but the results will be worth it. Those who wish I would just spit out some cool
bass lines in their entirety will be disappointed this time.
What do I mean by “think modularly”? Using blues in ‘F’ as the gold standard (and don’t
worry, I promise that we will move beyond blues in ‘F’ eventually, but for now, it teaches
everything we need to know), it can be safely said that bass lines can be broken down into
two-bar modules, memorized and practiced, and then “plugged-in” at will while performing,
almost without thinking about it. This helps the learning player to avoid the dreaded pitfalls
of constructing jazz organ bass lines: boring, repetitive lines that were memorized in their
entirety, too many scales and not enough reversal-of-direction, and getting stuck in one
range much of the time. (Master jazz organ players fully-use both bottom octaves, and
sometimes more.) Please look at this as being like a Chinese menu where you need to learn
and memorize the items on the menu, then put them together to make the full-meal deal.
What I have done here is to break down a twelve bar blues into two-bar segments.
The ‘1’ series is the first two bars, the ‘2’ series is the next two bars, and so forth.
You make a complete blues progression by playing a sequence all the way from ‘1’
to ‘6.’ Not every line will plug into every other line, because of where the ending of the
lines lead. But every ‘A’ will work with every other ‘A,’ every ‘B’ with every other ‘B,’ and so
on. For example you could play an entire blues using all the ‘C’ sections, 1 through 6. I told
you this was going to take some thought! Once you master these riffs or lines though,
choosing different ones in a split-second will become second nature and you won’t have to
think about it any more. This can be critical for a smooth performance when you also need
to worry about what comping chords to play, or about constructing a clean and exciting
solo. You’ll thank me someday, I hope.
About the lines themselves: I’m not going to pretend that they are definitive-- there are
plenty of other great lines, and I could have included more. I figured though that this was
plenty to chew on for about a year’s work. Most of them are, however, in use commonly.
Some are based on favorite lines by famous players, and below I will point out a few of
those. A few of the lines are the very basic, scalar lines I was complaining about, but they
are important to have in your vocabulary as well, as long as they aren’t over-used!
I want you also to be aware of a couple of essential concepts. One, the use of octaves is
very important in any jazz bass line, but especially when playing organ, so that one doesn’t
quickly get out of range. If you are using the bass setting 838000000 (or similar), the
octave changes will be noticeable due to the growl added by the second drawbar, and this
can be very effective on turnarounds, i.e., the five chord.
Another concept has no name that I’m aware of, so I call it a “turnover.” Example 1C
illustrates this. The idea is that you come to a note that’s under the note you’re headed for,
and then go back above it, and finally down to what I call “the business note,” for example
the Bb in bar four of an F blues would be a “business note.” At any rate, it’s an important

note, whatever you want to call it. All this is confusing to think about, but if you just
memorize some of them, you’ll see how cool they can sound. It’s hard to talk about the
flavors of music, but I would call this effect “jolly” (sometimes), “interesting,” and in minor
keys, even “bad” or “evil.” Jack McDuff used this type of line far more often than most of
the other famous players, and it really added to the vocabulary of his bass lines.
The examples were recorded at 110 BPM, but I want you to practice them at any speed that
works. You can increase the tempos once they are memorized.
In the 5-series examples, which cover the two-five chords, please note that G7 (dominant
7th) is just as appropriate as a Gm7 when used as a two-chord in blues, and is used very
often by jazz organists in this context.
In order to stall a bit more before starting this difficult lesson, let’s identify a few lines that
are associated with certain players. That doesn’t mean they invented them, they just played
them a lot.
Jimmy Smith
Examples from Jimmy Smith can be found in 1B, 1D, 2D, 2F, 3A, 4A, 5B, and 5D except for
the Gb in the second bar. Jimmy almost always preferred a G natural, which is more happy-
sounding. It’s optional. Also 6D. Jimmy, though he played fabulous, steady bass lines,
probably played by rote in the left hand more than any other well-known jazz organist,
especially in his later years. He seemed to design one bass line for each tune and then
mostly stick to it. That’s a legitimate approach.
Jack McDuff
Jack McDuff almost never played bass by rote. His lines were almost always refreshing and
different. Some of the great lines I have learned from this underrated master are,
1C, 1F, 2C, 3C (these are all turnovers), 3B, 3D, 3F, 4B, 4C, 4F, 5E, 6E.
Richard “Groove” Holmes
Richard “Groove” Holmes is often thought of as “an organ player’s bass player.” He was left
handed and his lines always seemed different from everyone else’s. That was partly due to
his touch and timing, which is another lesson for another day. He played many standard
lines, but he did a few things that were really different, most prominently illustrated by
example 5F. It says somewhere that you are “not supposed to” play that, but after you’ve
heard “Groove” do it a few times, I think you’ll agree that it adds a flavor all its own,
probably not a flavor found on any Chinese menu, either. He also used the iii/VI/ii/V
progression far more often than anybody else, and he used it in creative ways. We will visit
this progression in another lesson in a future issue. Other examples of lines he used include
1A, 1E, 1F, 2E, 2F, 3E, 4F, 5C, 6B, and 6C.
OK, it’s time to get memorizing and practicing these bass modules.

Bassline Modules
Compiled by Scott Hawthorn


Soundfiles of the Bassline Modules

Series 1, Ex05.mp3 and Ex05.mid;
can be found at www.b3player.com
Gear used to record examples

Scott plays a C-3 using a 1962 A-100 generator, built on December 11, 1956, with a 1963
Leslie 122 and a Leslie 31H with a custom, souped-up power supply. This equipment has been
used as backline rental for many jazz organ shows in the Seattle area, featuring most of the
great jazz organists. The organ has most of the common modifications, including line-out,
continuous percussion volume control, chorus depth control, and Trek-II Reverb. Scott also
owns an XK-3 with a Leslie interface.
The examples were played on the C-3 using the direct-out plugged into the computer using a
Delta 1010LT sound card and then recorded in Sonar Producer Edition 3.
Scott Hawthorn has been a Hammond organ

aficionado for 40 years. Mostly self-taught from
recordings, he also took instruction from some of
the jazz organ greats such as Jack McDuff and
Groove Holmes. He has been writing about jazz
organ on the internet since 1997 and also teaches
jazz organ skills at his home in Washington State.

Playing
Jazz Corner
By Tony Monaco and Josiah Hoskins
Comping and Soloing Tony Monaco Style

Tony in his usual – if I know something let’s teach it to them – has given us two excellent
examples from which to learn. First, he gives us two verses of blues in F. The first verse is
fairly straight forward, but the second verse is filled with reharmonizations that make it
sounds just great. The second example is an intermediate level solo (so the rest of us can
give it a try) that captures some of the characteristics of Tony’s style. So, I would suggest
that you give both the sound files a listen before reading the discussions.
Reharmonization
To be a jazz organ player you must not just learn reharmonization (also called chord
substitution), but you must make it second nature. So, what is reharmonization?
Reharmonization can be:
• Altering the voicing of a chord
• Substituting a different chord (or chords)
Now of course we usually don’t just alter or substitute for a chord without taking into
consideration how it will sound and whether are there some rules that seem to make some
sense for the alteration or substitution that we are making. In fact, there are a number of
rules or guidelines to help. In this article we will talk about a few common
reharmonizations, such as:
• Using leading chords
• Reharmonizing the V chord as a II-V
• Using tritone substitution
• Altering V chords
Leading Chords
Leading chords are usually the first reharmonization that jazz, blues, rock or gospel players
learn. They are also the most popular. A leading chord is simply the chord that is ½ step
above the target chord. In fact, our example TM F Blues Comp starts out with a leading
chord. The leading chord is F#7#5 and the target chord is F13 which begins the 1st measure
of our twelve bar blues. The leading chord concept is used many times in our “TM F Blues
Comp” example. As an exercise go through the example and see if you can pick out all the
leading chords.
V Chord -> II-V
The next most popular reharmonization is the V to II-V substitution. Reharmonizing the V
chord as a II-V combination yields a more modern sound and increases the harmonic
possibilities in both comping and soloing.

So, how does this reharmonization work in practice? If we are in the key of F, the I chord is
F and the V chord is C. If we are considering a V7 chord which is quite common and
especially common in the blues, the II-V substitution that is commonly seen is IIm7 – V7.
So, in the key of F we would substitute |Gm7 C7| for |C7|.
You can see an example of this reharmonization in measure 22 of the “TM F Blues Comp”
example. Note that the IIm7-V7 chords are further extended to Gm9 – C13. As you will see
in your study of reharmonization there are no hard and fast rules (just some helpful
guidelines). So, feel free to experiment and let your ears be your guide.
Tritone Substitution
Tritone substitution while not as pervasive as the previous two types of reharmonization,
can still be very effective and lead to a more unique sound as is evidenced by Tony’s
comping example. A tritone substitution is where you substitute the written or intended
chord with a chord (usually a 7th chord) a tritone (seven half steps) away.
In measures 23 and 24 of “TM F Blues Comp” we see the use of tritone substitution to
create a chromatic bass line. In measure 23 the intended Am7 is substituted with the tritone
Eb9 and in measure 24 the intended Gm7 is substituted with the tritone Db7. The result is a
familiar two measure chromatic chord and bass line, |Eb9 Daug9|Db7 C7|, that resolves to
the I chord, F13.
Altering V chords
Reharmonizing V chords follows some very complicated guidelines that are two lengthy for
us to cover in this article. However, let’s understand what we mean by reharmonizing of V
chords. First of all we don’t mean extending, i.e., the 7th that results from extending the
basic triad – F A C Eb, the 9th that results from the next extension, F A C Eb G, and so on.
What we mean is altering the V chord with a b9, alt, #11, #9, #5, sus, and so on.
In our comping example, Tony uses several altered V chords. For example, in measure 2 he
uses F#7#5, in measure 3 he uses a Db9b5, in measure 7 he uses F9#5, and so on.
Tony Monaco F Blues Comp Example
Organ and Leslie Settings:
NOTE: In this example the comping and the left hand bass is played on the lower
manual (LM).

TM F Blues Comp

Soundfile of the TM F Blues Comp,


Tony Monaco F Blues Comp Example
Here, at B3 Player’s request Tony provides us with an intermediate level solo for study and
our playing enjoyment. The organ settings are the same as show above.
TM F Blues Solo


Soundfile of the TM F Blues Solo,


Playing
Rock Corner
“Amigos” Carlos Santana and

Tom Coster as Co-writers
To start off our new section call “Rock Corner” we go all the way back to 1976 and the
album Amigos by Santana. This album takes a different path. There is a very strong
influence from Tom Coster (keyboard / B3 player) who co-wrote almost all the songs on
Amigos. We are going to focus on arguably the best song on the album, “Europa”.
The song is one of the classic Santana instrumental ballads. There are many characteristics
that make Santana’s instrumental songs unique, but two that stand out are the excellent
development of melody (and a guitar player that works to make the melody dominant in his
playing) and the richness of the chords and chord voicing that are usually laid down by the
keyboards, mostly by the Hammond B3.
Europa is in the key of Bb and as usual with ballads the tempo is slow. The nominal tempo
for Europa is 76 BPM. Let’s take a look at the chord progression:
|| V7sus4 | V7 | I | IV | III7sus4 | III7 | VIm ||
or using the absolute notes
|| Bb7sus4 | Bb7 | Ebmaj7 | Abmaj7 | G7sus4 | G7 | Cm ||
The chord progress, while unusual does use some of the classic steps. The unusual parts are
the beginning and ending chords. It is not usual to start on the V or end on the VI,
especially a VIm in an otherwise major chord progression.
One progression technique is used twice – once with the V chord and once with the III
chord. The technique is the dominant sus4 chord to dominant chord resolution. This is used
to start the verses – Bb7sus4 to Bb7.
The V7 resolves to the I in classic fashion and moves on to the IV also in a common move.
Next, comes the sus4 technique used on the III chord followed by the a III-VI move.
Although, the progression is unusual it resulted in what has become one of the best known
Santana tunes.
The chord progression has only one change for the second verse – Cmaj7 instead of Cm for
the last chord.
We will cover three verses which are then repeated. First, let’s look at the organ and Leslie
settings used for each of the verses on the next page.

Suggested Organ and Leslie Settings
Verse 1
Verse 2

Verse 2
NOTE: For the current drawbar setting the red dot shows the location of Middle C.
On the next two pages you will find the music. Learn one hand at a time and them put them
together. Then enjoy the beauty of extended chords woven together to make music for the
soul.

Europa
Music by Carlos Santana and Tom Coster

Soundfile of the Europa_Organ,


Feature Article
Tony Monaco
”B3” Renaissance Man
Introduction
Tony Monaco is truly a “B3” Renaissance Man.
He is a jazz organist; an educator, a producer
and a studio / record label owner.
As a jazz organist Tony was recognized in 2005 in both the “Downbeat Magazine” Critics’
poll and readers’ poll. In January 2006, he was also voted by “Jazz Times” readers as being
one of the top 4 jazz organists in the world! He has recorded many CDs including:
• East to West (Chicken Coup Records, February 2006)
• Fiery Blues (Summit Records, November 2004)
• New Generation (Summit Records, September 2003)
• Intimately Live at the 501 (Summit Records, October 2002)
• Master Chops “T” (Summit Records, March 2002)
• Burnin’ Grooves (Summit Records, September 2001)
As an educator Tony has produced the DVD series: “Playing Jazz Hammond”, Parts one,
two, three and four. Tony has given clinics in many countries and has students all over the
world.
In 2004 Tony built a very nice recording studio for keyboard oriented recordings called
Columbus Sound. By the way his last two CDs, Fiery Blues and East to West, were recorded
at Columbus Sound as was the "Playing Jazz Hammond" instructional DVD "Part 4".
In 2006 Tony formed Chicken Coup Records a new label especially for keyboard players.
He teamed up with Summit Records as Executive producer in order to provide keyboard
artists opportunities that have been previously hard to find.
Tony also is on the editorial board of B3 Player Magazine and he has been a great partner
helping me get B3 Player off the ground.
I had a chance to speak to Tony and get a first hand understanding of what makes him tick
for our readers. Here’s what he said…
Talking with Tony

B3 Player: Tony you are definitely a B3 Renaissance man. You are a jazz organist, an
educator, a producer, an engineer, a studio owner and now you have your own record label.
What can you tell us about yourself that got you where you are today?
Tony: I’m an honest, straight-shooting, hardworking, no bullshitting kind of a person. I
don’t have time for people who will waste my time. You need to filter. Me as a human being,
I try to send nothing but love to everybody and those that give me back love are the ones
that I gravitate to. I guess if you were to classify me – there are shakers and movers,
shakers shake things up and movers just move things around. I like to consider myself a

shaker. I like to shake things up and make things happen and I got that from being a very
compulsive person that has an addictive personality. I’m very compulsive, very obsessive
and sometimes neurotic – you have to be to sit around and practice 8, 10, 12 hours a day
playing scales or arpeggios.
B3 Player: How did you get started with music?
Tony: I got introduced to music by a door-to-door accordion salesman coming out to our
house when I was eight years old. I was fascinated by this little eight or twelve bass (some
ridiculously small number) accordion. He was just a door-to-door salesman selling lessons
and my dad was a musician. But I got introduced to music not because of my dad was a
musician but just because the door-to-door accordion salesman came to our door. I guess
that I was going to get introduced to it somehow.
B3 Player: So, where were you born?
Tony: I was born in Columbus, Ohio. I’m a first generation American. My father came from
Italy. He was born in 1935 and witnessed World War II. His playground was a battlefield. My
grandfather was a Mussolini soldier and he was captured along with my mom’s father at the
Battle of Tripoli – the first battle that Rommel lost. My grandfathers on both sides were
taken prisoners of war to England. They came from this little town, Introdaqua. It was a
very musical town. When my dad was fourteen years old he spent his birthday flying from
Italy to Venezuela to meet his father for the first time. My grandfather was release as a
prisoner of war from England and went to Venezuela because of his visa. My father went to
Venezuela to work and he left his mother and sister behind. That’s the kind of roots I’m
coming from – very war-torn people that came over to this country with nothing. It’s not
easy being the son of Ubaldo Monaco; that’s my father. He came over here with nothing and
left this world with a few million or so.
B3 Player: How did your dad do that?
Tony: He showed me how to do it – work hard! He had no education; when he was in third
grade the Nazis took over their school and used it for a fort. He had battle scars from the
shrapnel from the anti-aircraft fire that the Nazis would shoot up to knock down the
American bombers. So, he grew up with nothing to loose. He came over to this country
after he worked in Venezuela for one year and worked at the railroad washing dishes or
whatever else he could do. In 1959, I was born and he started Ubaldo Monaco Cement
Contractor; you know two guys and a truck.
So, here’s how we got into music; the whole town of Introdaqua ends up being musicians.
My grandfather was a great mandolin player, and he played marching drums and cymbals
marching from city to city playing drums – opera, concerto pieces. My dad played in the
nightclubs at night – at these rock-and-roll clubs; he actually hung around with people like
Nancy Wilson, Stump Gordon, you know all of those cats. He actually played with Uncle
Dave, the organ player. I’ve got pictures of them somewhere in tuxedos; they were called
the Leapfrogs. They were a fifties rock and roll band in a nightclub. My dad was a shaker.
We all worked together, we ran Monaco Concrete and later we got into the restaurant
business and playing music in the restaurant and we all just jumped right into the business
as a family.
B3 Player: How did you get started playing organ?
Tony: I started working with Dad because he didn’t want me to go to Music College. I was
already kicking ass playing music and he realized that if I went down the music road I was
going to kill myself because I have a very addictive personality. I got offers to play with
Dick Cantino, Glen Campbell, and I don’t know who else. My dad didn’t want me to go so I
ended up working the construction business after I graduated from a boys’ prep school. I
tried to go to college right afterwards but I was playing gigs at night. Back then, organ was
on the way out – we’re talking about the late seventies. That’s right before the Yamaha DX7
came out and changed the whole music industry for anybody who was into playing organ.

Guys like Jack McDuff and Groove Holmes were traveling with DX7’s after this. They were
trying pick up synthesizers – look at Jimmy Smith’s album Sit on It.
At sixteen my mother died. At that time I was just transferring over to play the organ
because I have a shoulder disease that wouldn’t allow me to hold an accordion any more.
We traveled down to my mom’s funeral in Gallipolis, Ohio. I remember when we went to the
funeral home there was an A100 with a 122 in the next room. So I just sat there the whole
time during the funeral and played the A100 while people kept coming up to me saying how
sorry that they were that my mother was gone. I didn’t even know my mother really. I was
more interested in what was coming out of that A100 to be honest with you. Love is from
the heart; it’s what you get you know. I’m the father of three beautiful daughters and I
know what love means. I’m sure that my mom loved me, but she was incapable – she had a
disease. She died at 36; she died from her esophagus eroding from drinking too much.
Before I played the organ I started taking accordion lessons and within a year and a half I’m
winning national contests. I’m good. I can play music; I don’t need to read music because I
can hear it. All I had to do is go to the lesson and hear the guy play it and I’m playing it
before we leave the room. I would just dive into practice – eight or nine hours a day of
accordion. By the time I was around eleven. I was practicing that thing like there was no
tomorrow. But I wasn’t introduced to jazz yet. I was playing “Granada”, “Malagania”, and
Hanon exercise scales.
B3 Player: Right. Instead of being out in the alleys playing ball or something you are
playing accordion.
Tony: I’m staying alive; I’m hanging out in the basement with my accordion. My dad had
this little band and it was a wedding band by now. His nightclub days were over. Practice
makes a lot of sense to me. Mixing something down for hours makes a lot of sense to me.
Working shit out makes sense to me. That’s the way I work. Having a lot of things going on
seems to be a way to keep my life so that I don’t have to sit down and think about the way
that I feel. That’s how I learned to handle all of these things. My dad was my biggest fan.
He knew that I had the talent. I would go out with him when he was playing with a little trio
at weddings. There was this guy named Mike Fabish that played an accordion, Dad played
the drums, another guy named Nado played the saxophone, and I think that they had a guy
playing bass. I started playing wedding gigs and small gigs when I was twelve. We played
songs like “Spanish Eyes”, waltzes, polkas, you know Italian gigs. I would make them dance
because the first thing that my dad taught me was that you don’t skip a beat because
people get really pissed off when they are dancing and you miss a beat. These are the
realities of music. That’s called learning it the right way. You never miss a beat again.
Mike (Fabish) decided that he was going to switch from accordion to Farfisa work. So he
went out and bought a bunch of organ records – Lenny D and who knows what. He
evidently bought Jimmy Smith’s Greatest Hits. So, at twelve years old he handed me this
record and he said, “Here is a record of some organ stuff that I got. I’m not really crazy
about it. Give it a listen and tell me what you think.” I put on that Jimmy Smith album and I
knew right then and there that I was going to be an organ player.
B3 Player: People that see you perform can tell you are totally into being an organ player.
Tony: And that is important, because the reason that I do this I found out is that God had a
reason for me. My dad noticed that I was playing Jimmy Smith on the accordion and playing
just like the records. My father stumbled onto this accordion player that was playing an
instrument called the Chordovox. It’s an electronic Lawry organ that’s combined with some
electronics on an accordion so that the contact is made with this monster cable with over
100 connections that is twice as thick as a six inch Leslie cable. It connects onto the
accordion and that connector connects to a box that connects to the Chordovox from there
you take your output because your electronics run through a Leslie speaker. So anyhow, my
dad found this teacher, Gene Allar, who’s gone now. Gene was playing two different gigs

around town. One he was playing on an A100 with a Leslie with a kind of rock-and-roll
band. But on Monday nights he was playing the Chordovox with a drummer. My dad knew
that I loved the Jimmy Smith stuff so he went out and found these guys. Gene Allar showed
me chord progressions and proper theory about how to develop chords and some rudiments
like 2/5’s and what that meant. I was still playing everything by ear. So that‘s when my dad
bought me my first Chordovox. I started taking lessons with Gene Allar and he showed me
how to walk bass lines on an accordion and use the Chordovox to sound like an organ. I
started playing gigs with the Chordovox; I built a trio where I was singing, playing the
Chordovox which means that I was playing the right hand and the bass line with the
drummer and three horns. I sang songs like “I Love You More Today than Yesterday” and
arranged Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears tunes without a bass player. I learned how to
walk that thing so that it sounded like organ bass.
B3 Player: So were you playing in a regular band?
Tony: I had my own little band called Tony Monaco and Company; I’ve got three horns,
trumpet, guitar, sax, and a drummer. I’m booking gigs and I’m 14 years old. So my dad got
me right in – business first.
We didn’t have a bass player. I played bass on the accordion on the left hand; it sounds like
an organ bass. That’s what was happening to me on one side, but on the other side I’m
practicing “The Preacher”, “The Champ” and trying to make that thing sound like a B3; lying
on top of a pool table listening over and over to “Rootdown”. When I was 15 years old, I got
sick with this disease that I’ve got called neuralgia amyotrophy and evidently it comes from
my mother; we found out it is hereditary because my oldest daughter now has it. When I
got it, we thought that it was a virus attacking nerves. Well come to find out it is some sort
of internal nerve degenerative mechanism. I started getting severe pain and I couldn’t raise
my right arm any more. I could barley put the accordion on my right shoulder. They did a
mylogram because they didn’t have MRI’s and they screwed up and things didn’t seal up
and stuff leaked out and I got the most tremendous headache and spent two weeks in the
hospital and another month just recovering from a bad mylogram. While I was in the
hospital my dad bought me my first B3. So I came out of the hospital from the bad
mylogram with my right shoulder all messed up. When I came home from the hospital there
was a B3 and a 122 in the family room. I practiced through the pain. I learned how to play
the organ by leaning forward and propping my right hand up on a pillow on my knees so
that I could play the upper manual and with the left hand I would rest my palm on the rail
so that I could play with my fingers because I couldn’t hold my arms up. I don’t have the
strength to hold my arms up even today. I have to lean into it that way to find a leverage
place.
I started practicing 8-10 hours a day on the organ and started playing gigs. I sat in on
these jam sessions back in the ‘70’s and saw other organ players, Alvin Valentine, he was
the first. Alvin Valentine was a butcher by today’s standards when I look back. So, I would
go see Alvin Valentine and I started getting as good as Alvin Valentine and get cocky. My
dad went out looking and he found a guy named Bobby Pierce. I went out to hear Bobby
Pierce and I said, “Oh Shit! I’ve got to start all over again.” This guy was great. Then I
started getting good like Bobby Pierce. That’s how I got good on the organ. It was like every
time I thought that I was getting good my dad would knock me down a few notches by
finding somebody better and keep me humble. Then Dad took me to hear Hank Marr.
B3 Player: I’m always amazed at these artists who are so afraid to give away their secrets
because if it were so easy to reproduce then what would they have?
Tony: It’s funny that you brought it there. We must be on the same spiritual legs right now
– the same wave length. People say today to me that I have the Chicken Coup label and I’m
helping other organ players and ask why I would be helping other organ players that could
take some of the market. I look at them and say, “Are you afraid of my playing?” This
person said, “No”. I said, “Well then I’m not afraid of you because people that like my

music. People that like your music like your music. Now there might be some people that
like your music and my music, but you will never be me because I’m me”. With Chicken
Coup Records I’m not afraid of helping other organ players because I look at it this way –
It’s the law of larger numbers. The more organ players out there, the more people that are
going to be attuned to organ playing. They are going to find out who has their shit
happening and they are going to find me. They are going to find Joey (DeFrancesco), and
they are going to find Dr. Lonnie (Smith), but they are not going to find the new people that
will never have a chance out there unless I help them.
B3 Player: If you increase the market, all of you win.
Tony: And I don’t loose my license either. I live my life now at this moment I’ve got the
opportunity before God takes it all away because I have seen Him take it away from me
quickly twice because I was hit by this disease again when I was 35. That one was even
more devastating. At least at 15 I got to switch from a Chordovox to the Hammond B3 and
to me that was a favorable jump. When I was 35 and I got hit with the disease again, it hit
my leg and it took my left forearm so I could not play at all. I had to cancel every gig that I
had unless I wanted to play with a bass player. At the same time, I lost my voice and all of
my gigs were based around singing. When I was 35, eleven years ago, in 1995 I was in the
middle of a divorce. I had three young kids, I was running a construction business, and
playing just 2-3 nights a week to make extra money
B3 Player: That is a big change. That’s more than a full time job.
Tony: To run a successful construction business at that time; I worked more than I care to
say. And I played gigs at night. But not the kind of gigs I wanted to play. I was playing like
Miretti’s; playing piano bar stuff with a synthesizer on top playing left hand with a drum
machine and making $150 a night in tips. I paid a lot of dues, man. I’ve played the “Chicken
Dance” more times than I want to tell you. I’ve carried that organ up and down steps and in
and out of places that most organ players would have never dreamed of. That’s why I’m
where I’m at and I’ll carry it until I can’t carry it any more. That’s just part of playing the
organ; of getting to the gigs and carrying the damn thing off the trailer, setting it up, and
making it work. You’ve got to want to be an organ player; you just can’t be an organ player.
B3 Player: What brought about the change in your renewed excitement of playing the
organ?
Tony: All of a sudden about the early ‘90’s I was driving to Florida and I heard on the radio
Jimmy McGriff; I swear to God it was Jimmy McGriff and the announcer said that it was Joey
DeFrancesco. It was the first time that I had ever heard of him. All I remember of the
recording was that it sounded just like Jimmy McGriff. I didn’t hear Joey’s name until later
on again. So, I’ve truly got to credit the revival of the organ to Joey because Jimmy Smith
wasn’t coming out with organ records anymore; Jimmy Smith didn’t come out with a record
for a long time and he was the cat that I always watched anyhow until I found Dr. Lonnie
Smith when he started coming out with that interesting tribute to Jimi Hendrix – “Foxy
Lady” and another one of his. Joey was the first time I heard jazz organ again in a long time
on the radio. I didn’t even listen to jazz on the radio any more. I was busy raising a family
working the construction business and playing at Miretti’s at night. My old B3 was sitting
there and one day I looked at it and thought’ “Damn, I miss this thing.” I turned it on and
within two weeks I went out and bought a trailer. I found Bob Tyo; he was an old organ
tech that used to work on my organs and I had him fix up my organ because it had some
problems, notes were sticking and I wore the bus bars out on that first keyboard – I’d bent
so many of them that it wouldn’t even play. Bob Tyo was an old time tech guy that used to
work on Lenny D’s organs. It was not like the new techs do today by trying to restore it all
back to the original like Lonnie Smith is doing now. The old techs just fixed shit back then.
They just made it work. Today you would never settle for that. I got my organ fixed and
started playing with this little band called Grinder. I played an Oberheim OB-X3 squared and
the Quadrasynth playing through two Pro-3’s. This was 1995. Aaron Scott, a drummer, John

Bursler, a rock and roll blues guitar player, Joe Crump a saxophone player, and Jimmy
Casto was a drummer. There were two drum sets. Word went out on the street that there
was this jam band like funk band with some guy named Tony Monaco on the organ. I had
been out of the scene for a long time. I opened up in this little club, Dick’s Den, in
Columbus. Within two or three years I’m playing in this community festival called Comfest
that happens at the end of summer and organ is catching on and I’m starting to get a name
as an organ player. I’m just doing it now from a whole different place; I’m just doing it
because I want to have fun. I decided at that point in time that I was not ever going to play
anything that I didn’t want to play. I made a contract with myself that I wasn’t going to play
“Love on the Rocks” again or the “Chicken Dance” unless I chose to do it. The energy that
started at that time is what led me to where I am right now.
B3 Player: I think that environment plays a big part.
Tony: Environment and how about the set up that God has to do because I wasn’t done
with the music. I made the decision in 1995 that I was never going to play what I didn’t
want to play. But you know, I was soon going to be making the decision again when my dad
was terminally ill with lung cancer. I had to make the decision again to quit playing music. I
had started playing the organ out at Comfest and gigs like that and I started to get a
reputation as an organ player. I ended up playing a show with Chuck Mangione in
Columbus. He found out about me through my dad when he was in Florida and Chuck
Mangione came through. I did a concert with Chuck and that got things going again for me
really fast.
I met, Kathy, my second wife. Soon after I met Kathy, I found out that my dad had lung
cancer. This was in 1998. My dad survived two years. The last 6-8 months of his life, I was
basically him; using his signatures to clean everything up so that when he died everything
was in order because he left my mom (She is actually my step-mother, but I call her Mom
because she raised me.) and my mom doesn’t know how to drive, write checks or anything
else. She was the typical Italian mother; she cooked and cleaned and provided for the
family. I had to stop playing music again; I quit. But now I know that I am not done yet; I
know that He is just starting with me. I’m enjoying it; I’m going to keep on going. When my
dad died he gave me the greatest lesson that he ever could have given and he had given
me many great lessons before. He was a wonderful father. The lesson he gave me in the
end was that the only regret that he had was that he was leaving this earth. It wasn’t that
he had any regrets that he didn’t do everything that he wanted to do; he did whatever he
wanted to do. I said to myself at that moment, “If I die right now I wouldn’t be able to say
the same.” I spent my life being a slave to everybody else and not true to me. So the lesson
that he left with me gave me the permission to be what I am today.
B3 Player: How did you meet Joey DeFrancesco?
Tony: About six months after my dad died, Louie, my drummer, called me because we
were playing a gig. I was trying to play jazz organ stuff but there was no audience. Louie
(Tsamous) told me that they were opening up a new jazz club in Columbus called The 501;
you know the name from my CD. He told me that Joey DeFrancesco was coming into town
for the grand opening and asked me if I would like to go. This was the first time that I heard
Joey’s name since the early ‘90’s since I heard it on the radio. This was now the spring of
2000. I called Jim Minary who is the booking agent that was bringing Joey in. So I called Jim
and told him that I would like to take Joey out to dinner. I wasn’t even thinking about being
a jazz organist at this time. This is just one Italian to another Italian. Jim Minary called me
back and told me that Joey was interested. He told me that Joey was going to be giving a
clinic at Four Days Career Center and that I should pick him up. I decided that we should go
to my mom’s house – Mom cooks like you wouldn’t believe, she’s Italian and she cooks
everything! So, I pick up Joey from the clinic about three or four in the afternoon and when
I go into pick him up, one guy says, “Hey Joey this is Tony, you should hear this guy play
the organ.” I hadn’t been playing organ in a while since my dad died except for that one
gig. Joey didn’t know that I was an organ player because I didn’t want to tell him; it wasn’t

about organ. I didn’t have any aspirations at that time to be a jazz organist. I know that it
is not a very lucrative trade. If you think about jazz organ from a business side, you might
as well just shoot yourself in the head. I go to pick up Joey and this guy wants me to play
organ and I’m shaking because I had played the organ three times in the last two years.
Byron (Landom) was playing the drums and all that I could do was catch a groove and
Joey’s eyes lit up and he yelled, “Yeah!” I knew that I had it. I had that magic spot. We
became friends. We talked on the way over to my mom’s house about me coming to Arizona
and I’m still thinking very small like if you want to produce me that is great. I had no idea
that I was going to come out with six national releases, have a studio, and a record
company. I started believing in myself because Joey believed in me. When I went to
Phoenix to record Joey was going to try to get me on with Concord, but Concord wasn’t
taking the risk to put out another organ player. He did the best that he could. I went to New
York City to the IAJE (International Association of Jazz Educators) convention because I
didn’t have anybody picking up my record and I started shuffling through what I call “the
bullpen” down in the bottom where the exhibitors show their stuff at the IAJE. It’s the
biggest jazz convention in the United States.
B3 Player: What happened to your recording?
Tony: I came out with Burning Grooves by hooking up a
business deal with Summit Records; I made them an offer that
they couldn’t refuse. I said that for every dollar that you think
that you are going to put in, I’m going to at least put in three or
four. I had already invested $15,000 up to that point. I paid
Joey, Byron, Paul (Bollenback) for the studio, and trips to New
York and I paid everybody the money that they deserved. I had
to eventually make the decision to put my money where my
mouth was and I am blessed to be able to do it. I bought ads in
Keyboard, Jazz Time, Jazz Is, Downbeat and hired a good radio
promoter and press promoter and I came out with Burning Grooves in September 2001. I
had thirty grand invested in it with a release date of 9/07/01 with articles purchased for all
of the October issues with ads. This was just before 9/11/2001! Burning Grooves was
originally called Out of Nowhere because that was one of the tunes that I originally recorded
in Phoenix that Joey produced. It was Burning Grooves plus some other tracks but it didn’t
have enough blues for the record business. Record businesses want to put out a product
that they think has a chance of selling. Every record promoter that I was running into was
saying that it needed more blues. I ended up scheduling another session and I used Louie
(Tsamous) and Derek (DiCenzo), the guitar player that I was playing with in Columbus to
record three or four tracks of blues so that it could be put on the market. “Backwards
Shack”, “Fungi Mama”, and “So Long for Now” were recorded in Columbus. The tunes that I
left out of Out of Nowhere are available as free downloads on my website under the
discography page of Burning Grooves.
B3 Player: So what got the most airplay out of Burning Grooves?
Tony: I’m not exactly sure because what happened was that when I finally got signed on
with Summit Records was that four days after the record came out was September 11th. All
of the ads that I had purchased in the magazines were slated for October so that the record
could get to the stores before the advertising. Who knew that September 11th was going to
happen? This was all planned in July and August. Burning Grooves comes out, September
11th happens, all of the ads were pre-paid for the October issues that come out in the
middle of September and they got thrown in the bottom of the pile. There was no way to
track what my record did because it was obscured by news. Darby Christensen, the
president of Summit Records, calls me and tells me that I have to come out with another
one immediately. Master Chops T came out in February of 2002. I was on the way to
Vermont to record a jazz record for Eric Niemyer, the owner of Jazz Improv Magazine. He
had hired me, Byron Landom, Mark Elf on guitar and Donny McCaslin who plays sax on

Master Chops T and I’m driving fourteen hours with a trailer to do this record. Darby called
me and said, “You know, I just can’t settle for what just happened to you with Burning
Grooves. We’ve got to do something now.” So I called John Schwab Recording Studio in
Columbus, Ohio and set up a date for the following week for me to go in there with no set
list at that moment to record Master Chops T so that I could get another release out as soon
as February to pull Burning Grooves out of the bottom. I get to Vermont and it just so
happens that Donny McCaslin is in on the session and it
sounded so great that I asked him if he would do the
session back with me in Columbus and he did. He brought
Kenny Rampton who played trumpet for Jimmy McGriff for
the longest time. I used a lady named Sarah Morrow on
trombone because she is good friends with Darby. She is a
great trombonist and she comes from Columbus which was
cool. So on my way back from Vermont I was writing tunes,
writing arrangements, and deciding which tunes to use. I
got the organ and went strait to the studio and recorded
Master Chops T. On Master Chops T I went all out again and
said what the heck; if I’m going to pull the other one out,
I’ve got to recapture the same buzz about me. I hired a
really good publicist, Ann Braithwaithe. You know that lady got me a full page write-up
about my story in Downbeat, Jazz Is, and Jazztime. When Master Chops T came out it went
all the way to number ten in the first three weeks and it got full page write-ups in all of
these magazines and all kinds of press. Up until Fiery Blues, Master Chops T enabled
Burning Grooves to be my top selling record.
B3 Player: When did you start your web presence?
Tony: I put out my “Playing Jazz Hammond 1 and 2” by the time I had Master Chops T out.
When I originally made Part 1 and Part 2 they were for the VHS, part 3 is on a CD ROM, and
Part 4 is on a DVD. I decided that it was time to put up a web presence when I finally
realized that I was going to get some kind of record deal. I had a website up so that people
could go and listen to the clips.
B3 Player: Let’s get back.
Tony: Master Chops T came out and got great reviews because I made the investment to
hire a good publicist. I took 500 - 600 CD’s of Burning Grooves that I had Darby from
Summit Records print up as promotional
copies; I sent them to every jazz festival and
club in the U.S. I started getting gigs I
started making some money. I put “Part 1
and Part 2” together on a DVD and they sold
like crazy at $40 each. I sold 600 copies. The
sales of about $20,000 from Burning Grooves
and Master Chops T made it possible to go
out and record Intimately Live just by
grabbing six microphones on an old Akai
sixteen bit 44 kilohertz recorder. Intimately
Live was the first record that I recorded,
mixed, and mastered. I put the radio
campaign out on that whole record because it
was my third for $7000. So I went from
$30,000 for the first one, around $20,000 on
the second, and $7000 on the third. I started
getting better at saving money. I put out
Intimately Live which was a live gig on
Memorial Day at the 505 Jazz Club. By the end of Intimately Live I had broken even. By the

time I put out Fiery Blues, that would be CD number five, I had invested $100,000 in Tony
Monaco (the item) and I got the $100,000 back with five releases and three instructional
pieces, a hell of a lot of endorsements, a hell of a lot of respect, and the set-up to start
Chicken Coup Records. That’s basically what this has been because by the time that I did
Intimately Live I realized that I could put out a national jazz release. Every track on it is
seven or eight minutes long! I got up to number 15! I was playing tracks that were twice as
long as anybody else’s. It’s hard to get play time with tracks that long. On East to West, I
kept all of my tracks under four minutes. I just got a few emails from radio announcers that
said that they would like to hear me stretch more like I did on “Roz da Cat”. You never
know. Intimately Live spoiled them maybe.
B3 Player: Are you willing to give back?
Tony: That’s the only way that you can get it. That’s the main spiritual wall. I’m glad that
you brought this up. That is everything. My favorite prayer is the Prayer of St. Francis. The
reciprocal of everything that we think that we want we have to do in order to prepare
ourselves to receive that. So in order to receive accolades, I need to be able to give
accolades. I need to put myself in the position where people come to me for answers.
B3 Player: Do people have to be at a certain level to take lessons with you?
Tony: I take whoever is interested in wanting to spend a day with me talking about
whatever because if they are listening to you they are obviously interested in it at some
level.
B3 Player: So is there room for a beginner, an intermediate, or an advanced player?
Tony: Yeah, I’ve got a different gamut of students. I’ve got this one gentleman who is a
very wealthy man from California who is almost seventy years old and he is a musician by
heart who grew up in the music business but became a successful venture capitalist and
attorney. For his 70th birthday party, he wants to have me there and hire Bruce Forman and
a drummer and play five tunes. He just wants to play some tunes. I’ve got this kid that flew
in from Sidney, Australia and he spent a whole month in Columbus. He rented a house and I
put a B3 in the house. He paid one fee for the whole month and I took him with me to gigs,
he took lessons, and he hung out with me all day in the studio and he is going to be
somebody. I’ve got Linda Dachtyl as a student. If you open up the March issue of Keyboard
Magazine you will see a Chicken Coup ad that talks about my DVD’s, the new East to West
CD, and Linda Dachtyl’s release. She is interested in taking lessons because she is
interested in stepping up her playing. If I had the time right now, I would ask Joey to teach
me. To be a teacher, you set up a relationship to be a student as well.
B3 Player: As a producer, how do you feel and what does it bring out in you?
Tony: When I’m producing my own records one of the things excites me about my music is
to hear good things. If you hear negative things, you don’t feel pleased about yourself. The
jazz business is brutal. It’s a business of sharks and hungry people that are all trying to find
a way to make money in a business that is not making any money. Herbie Hancock has
already said that jazz is dying. But it is not going to die because of people like me that want
it to stay alive and other people that are going to read this article.
B3 Player: How do people learn to grow?
Tony: They have to look outside the box. I don’t look at this jazz industry as an industry; I
look at it as a business. When I travel, one of the things that the DJ’s seem to like about my
music is that each record has something different going on. Burning Grooves is kind of like a
traditional, first out of the gate playing my ass off with too many notes, but people say that
they like it. Master Chops T has a different audience. It’s not your organ audience that likes
Master Chops T - “Me and Mrs. Jones”,” Luck be a Lady Tonight”, and “Girl Talk” are some
of my top downloads. In digital downloading, my vocals far out sell my organ music. If I
were to take this as a business only, I wouldn’t put out any organ tracks, but I am a jazz

organist. I’m trying to find ways to keep my music business alive and to keep my jazz
organ.
B3 Player: You took off in Fiery Blues.
Tony: It punched. Borders picked it up right away. Fiery Blues was intended to allow me to
get on with what I wanted to do. I love to play blues, but I also like to play straight ahead.
Blues sells.
B3 Player: It borderlines moving into mainstream blues.
Tony: Darby and I did that on purpose. We purposely planned Fiery Blues. That was no
mistake. I had to turn my head from what I was going to hear from the jazz police. The first
thing a heard was about putting two tunes in B flat back to back. My soloing on “Going to a
Meeting” is just happening. It is one of my favorite solos; it just came together right. After
the guitar part when I start my solo, the whole tune shifts tempo just ever so slightly. I fell
into the Tony Monaco groove; my groove, God’s place, the groove that I’m supposed to
follow. The logical sequence was to put Willie Pooch singing “And Everyday I Have the
Blues”. Fiery Blues was a party record. I am proud of myself. A few critics even mentioned
that I was able to make blues sound different; at least enough that you didn’t get bored
hearing the same tune over and over again. I tried to use alternate changes and alternate
turnarounds to keep the blues feeling fresh and use different ways to interpret the blues as
much as I could so that it didn’t just sound like one more of those blues records where
everything has the same 1, 4, 5 only progression and no color tone. There are plenty of
color tones to live off of on Fiery Blues.
B3 Player: You really branched out there; you didn’t just play the typical blues.
Tony: Well you know what? Robert, Louie, and I had been doing it. On Fiery Blues we have
different sessions. There was one where I did tunes with Jim Rupp and Tom Carroll in honor
of Hank Marr’s Greasy Spoon. That was Hank’s last band before he died. Jim Rupp lays the
drums so nice on that and Tom Carroll played it so smooth. Another session was when we
had Willie Pooch, Louie Tsamous, Derek DiCenzo, my old guitar player who played on
Burning Grooves, and Gene Walker on sax. We did that one night and then we did the
session with Robert, Louie, and me on another night. Fiery Blues was the first recording out
of Columbus Sound. Columbus Sound is a studio that is built onto my house. It’s not your
standard basement studio. It’s actually its own wing of the house. It has a sound wall and I
have a ramp. I can live in here. Sometimes I think that my wife might resent Columbus
Sound. I love it over here; it has all of the toys that I want. Fiery Blues sold more in the
first six months than Burning Grooves sold up to date. That goes to show you that content
is important.
B3 Player: Let’s talk about Paesanos for a second.
Tony: Paesanos came together at the last minute. It all started with Joey (DeFrancesco)
coming into town in December and I was trying to help him get a gig. I
couldn’t get a gig happening for Joey. Joey and I had talked about the
idea of the Giants of the Organ record that Groove Holmes and McGriff
had put out. At the last minute, we decided that we were going to do
that. So anyhow, Joey comes into town and we decided that we were
going to end up doing a recording session instead of a gig. He hinted
that maybe I should use the new B3 since he is coming into town on a
new B3 and it would be good for Hammond. Joey called Hammond and
the next thing I know is that I’m driving to Hammond to pick up the
digital B3 Japanese cabinet. Joey had the American cabinet; I had the Japanese cabinet. I
went and picked up a B3 and a 122 XB. They didn’t give it to me; I just went to pick it up to
use.
B3 Player: Did you have to take it back?

Tony: Well of course.

B3 Player: How did you get your new B3 now?
Tony: So anyhow I did the recording of New Generation and that thing took off.
Hammond called me back and asked if I wanted the Japanese version. So I went up and got
it. That’s how I got the new B3. New Generation came out and did really well.
B3 Player: Tell me about your organs.
Tony: In my studio, I have an A100. I don’t know what year it is; Lonnie (Smith) could tell
you. It is probably an early ‘60’s. I don’t pay attention. It sounds good. When I play it, it
lights up so I use a vintage 122 in the studio and then inside the isolation room I have a
145 cabinet that Lonnie had that he put a 122 into. I guess that you would call it a 142. In
my studio I have the new B3 which I use the 771 for the in-room monitor and a 122XB in
the isolation room. I also have the XK system in my control room that I use to trigger either
the XK system through 2101 or 2121 or I use the whole XK system to trigger the B4 II. I
have a B3, a 1955 with a 122XB and a 760 Leslie in my trailer that is ready to go. It
depends on whether I want to travel with the new B3 or the old B3 I can leave the 122XB
and the 760 in the trailer and change out the B3’s. The ’55 B3 is suited for eleven pin. For
the eleven pin Leslies, I have two 122XB’s, one 771, one 760 that is eleven pin that Lonnie
put a special amp in, and I have a 2101 system with a 2101 and 2121. Then I have another
2121 because I did an experiment and found a really neat way to make the XK3 portable
using two 2121’s and a 2101 to make the Leslies sound more realistic.
B3 Player: Please tell us about your latest release?
Tony: When I did East to West I wanted to use Louis Nash from Phoenix. Louis and I had
done a couple of gigs together and hit it off pretty well. We like playing together. I wanted
to use Louis from the west coast and use Larry Coryell from the east coast. But, at the last
minute Larry Coryell couldn’t make it, so I ended up giving it to Bruce (Forman). At the
same time, Louis had to back out because he had a tour that was going to pay a lot of
money and that was the only time that he could do it. I ended up using Adam Nussbaum
instead. I ended up using two completely stylistic different drummers and two totally
stylistic different guitar players. That decision was made, and I love this, three weeks before
the recording.
B3 Player: You are doing the whole thing?
Tony: I had already lined up a set list to do with Louis and Larry of totally different tunes.
Louis Nash is what you would consider an on-fire drummer and Adam Nussbaum is your on-
fire, twist things around, throw-it-at-you kind of drummer like Elvin Jones. Adam plays
totally different from Louis. Now I’m thinking of a
record using Adam Nussbaum. East to West actually
gave me an opportunity to grow really fast. I only had
three days after I got back from Australia before the
session and I still didn’t have all of the tunes figured
out. I knew that I was going to record “I’ll Remember
Jimmy” but now what? That’s when I wrote “Rudy and
the Fox” and “Roz da Cat”. I had to think of Adam
Nussbaum. Bruce Forman is a laid back west coast
guitar player; where as Larry Coryell is that east coast
in your face guitar player. It was the mirror image of
instrumentation. I think that some day that I will have
to make West to East and revisit Louis Nash and
maybe Larry Coryell or someone from the east coast. I
wanted one of the first records that came out on
Chicken Coup to set a standard. I wanted to sound
better on East to West as a musician and I hope that I have accomplished that. I was so

concerned about the mix because of the technical problems that I ran into that I didn’t even
get to enjoy the record. I hated the record before I enjoyed it because I had to mix it down
so many times to try to get it sounding right.
B3 Player: So, what’s next for Tony Monaco?
Tony: Tony Monaco, you’ve got to remember it’s not an egotistical thing. Tony Monaco is
now a concept. He is a product; he’s a machine. I’m just enjoying the ride watching
wherever Tony Monaco goes. I’ve got some recording projects that I want to do. One is
venturing into jazz organ meets hip hop meets synthesizers; I want to experiment using
loops, soft synthesizer, and digital stuff. The only analog part might be the analog
synthesizer, but the organ will definitely be soft synthesizer. That project is just something
that I’m working on.
Another project that Tony Monaco wants to do is Dinner for Two which is where I’m going
to use the Excelsior midi accordion and singing some really cool love songs with the
accordion and the organ. It’s a concept record that I’m going to try to market to husbands
and wives that want to listen to this record, eat dinner and maybe go to bed with –
romantic. It’s not how many notes I can play but more so pushing how many pretty notes I
can play. I’m thinking Dean Martin meets Dick Cantino meets Jimmy Smith or meets Tony
Monaco the jazz organist yeah, that’s even better. Tony Monaco the accordion player meets
Tony Monaco the jazz organist meets Tony Monaco the vocalist. I might make a live record.
Those are two of my main focuses right now.
Meanwhile I want to allow other organ players to blossom through the Chicken Coup. I’ve
got Linda Dachtyl coming out with her project. I’ve got a guy that sounds a lot like Larry
Young whose name is John McKay. He has a really neat project called Organoptics. I’m
going to help him on the Chicken Coup. I’ve got a Scott Newman project that has cool
keyboards and no jazz organ at all. I’d like to develop the Coup also. I’m going to be doing
a Willie Pooch record. Fiery Blues is coming out again with Willie Pooch, and I’m going to be
the producer, the engineer, and the backup musician. It’s going to be blues. It will be me,
Louie (Tsamous), and a guitarist behind Willie Pooch. Willie Pooch is an icon. Willie Pooch is
a cat that is a retired steel worker. He worked in the steel mills during the day and he sang
in blues clubs all night. He’s for real. He’s like I am. He’s burned the candle on both ends.
In Fiery Blues I kept everything in track sequence, not everything getting too crazy because
that was basically targeted for wider recognition. It was a stretch to pull myself out of being
just a local guy that had put out three records and got lucky with one with Joey. I had to
establish myself as something if I was going to take it
any further. I think that I have succeeded because
East to West (my latest release) is going like crazy.
I’m really excited about that. Of course on the organ
side, I’m getting ready to expand to a “Part 5” video.
“Part 5” is going to have me giving an organ clinic
with Bruce Forman and Vince Latiano at the Monterey
Jazz Festival summer camp – live. It’s more of an
entertaining kind of clinic instead of learn the Locrian
scale and practice. Now the second half of it (I like to
put out two to two and a half hour DVD’s if I’m going
to sell them for $40) is a live concert of Louie
(Tsamous), Robert (Kraut), and me recorded with
good audio at the 501 Club. It’s called the Park Street
Tavern, because it changed owners. It was filmed by
the guys that are doing a B3 documentary that I’m involved in – “The Killer B3”. I don’t
think that they are going to release it for another year or so. That is part of the Tony
Monaco playing Hammond educational series.

I’ve got a new website designer that is designing my website so that my DVD’s can be
broken up into podcast digital downloads by chapter. Soon my whole catalog is going to be
available through my website through a database of digital downloads. I’m going to
experiment with the digital download on the educational side and I’m going to eventually
work it out so that I can do live web-cast lessons. If this digital downloading takes off with
North to South, I might be doing some under the radar releases from the Chicken Coup
that never hit vinyl. I’m going to experiment in the digital distribution world. I’ve got
another thing going on – I’m working with the gentleman from California to have live web-
casts in stereo with three different cameras to chose from at various clubs around the
world. We are already testing at the Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis. We are going to set up a
series of three or four jazz clubs in the country that are going to have live web-casts that
you can tune into or archive.
B3 Player: Well, you certainly have a lot going on. Good luck and we will be watching for
what happens next. Now, let’s look at a transcription of a special recording that Tony did for
B3 Player of the first track on the CD East To West, “I’ll Remember Jimmy”.
Soundfiles of the Tony’s Special “I’ll

Remember Jimmy”, Ex14.mp3 and
Ex14.mid can be found at
www.b3player.com

I’ll Remember Jimmy
Music by Tony Monaco

I’ll Remember Jimmy P02


















In the Studio
Columbus Sound Recording Studio
Recording “Blue Bop LDB3 and Friends” at Columbus Sound

In 2004 Tony Monaco set about building a studio that would cater to jazz organ and
keyboard artists. He named his studio Columbus Sound and located it on a four acre
wooded area just north of Columbus in Galena, Ohio.
The Control room is setup for both audio and MIDI recording. It is acoustically treated to
provide an exceptional listening area for both mixing and mastering. Here is some of the
equipment that is available in the control room:
• Roland VMC 7100 Digital Console and 7100 Mixer Processor
• Mackie and Alesis Mixers
• M-Audio Delta 1010s Audio PCI Interfaces and the Firewire 1824
• M-Audio Octane preamps
• Mackie and Altech studio Monitors
• Cakewalk Sonar 5 and Project 5 v.2
• Headphones with individual mix controls
• MIDI Production STATION
• Samson Powered Stereo monitors
• Yamaha P-60 Piano (Great action)
• Roland EV 2020 with Piano Card and Korg X5DR tone modules
• Dave Smiths Poly Evolver Rack
• XK System to control or play live sounds
• Native Instruments Suite of many Soft Synths including the B4II and the B4D
Controller
• Library of Samples and Loops (Acidized!)
Columbus Sound has a large spacious live room (where the musicians play for the
recordings) with great views. Musicians can of course bring their own instruments; however,
Columbus Sound has some very nice new and vintage instruments such as:
• Hammond A100 with two vintage 122s
• 1955 B3 with three possible Leslie configurations: 122, 760 or 771
• New B3 with three possible Leslie configurations: 122XB 760, or 771
• XK3 / Traditional XK System with three possible Leslie configurations: 122XB 760, or
771
• Vintage wood Slingerland Drums
In addition, there is an isolation room for speakers and amps.

The Live Room is set up so that each player can hear the other and it just like playing a live
gig – so the feel and soul is never missing. If you are in need of a recording environment
with all the right stuff where the focus is on organ / keyboard artists, Columbus Sound is
the place! So, try it out!
To get a better understanding of what it is like to record as Columbus Sound, B3 Player had
a chat with Linda Dachtyl who recorded her new CD “Blue Bob and Friends” at Columbus
Sound.
B3 Player: How did your association with Tony Monaco get started?
Linda: I saw Tony Monaco play at the Columbus Comfest which is a community festival that
has been going on since probably the early 1970’s. I was aware of Joey DeFrancesco and I
was aware of the neo jazz organ thing that was going on in the ‘90’s. I took an interest in
that too. I went to see Tony play and it was like, I need to be a part of this. Because it was
just so exciting; it seemed that the music getting played did not have any age limit. I got to
know Tony after that. We did some tech-talk and traded some parts and over time I got to
know him a little better.
B3 Player: What’s it like to work with Tony Monaco in the studio?
Linda: Tony is very helpful; he has a really nice facility where everybody can play in the
room at the same time but there is still separation of the tracks. So you really get the feel
that you are playing a gig rather than just laying tracks in a sterile environment. With mix-
downs and that kind of stuff, Tony would always ask for opinions and that kind thing. I don’t
know a whole lot about sound engineering but he wanted both my opinion and my husband,
Cary’s opinion. I was a very friendly and professional experience.
B3 Player: Is there anything else that you would like to say about Tony?
Linda: Well, he has been very supportive. He’s a very giving individual. I can’t speak for
him, but he is not secretive about anything. I used to ask people about their sound, they
would push all of their drawbars in and say that it was this, that, and the other. If you ask
Tony, it’s like, “Oh, it’s this.” He was very giving with the information. I think that it is great
that he has a passion to keep this thing going – the B3 genre like we all do. He has taken a
special interest in that and to have people come and take lessons and that kind of thing. He
is just a great guy.
EDITORS NOTE: See the article in this issue on Linda’s new release, “Blue Bop and Friends”,
for more on information about recording.

Gear
B3 Clones
Hammond-Suzuki XM-2 Drawbar Sound Module
Hammond-Suzuki continues to be aggressive in their introduction of products for the

modern organ player. Starting with the XK-3, followed by the Traditional XK-System, then
the XK-1 and Pro XK-System, Hammond-Suzuki is now seriously getting into the sound
module business with their latest offering, the XM-2.
Basically, the XM-2 is an XK-3 with the following exceptions:
• no keyboard
• no 11-pin Leslie interface (it does include an 8-pin Leslie interface for connecting to
a Leslie 2101)
• one set of physical drawbars (if you purchase the drawbar controller)
• since there is only a phone plug for the expression pedal is not clear whether you
can connect a Hammond expression pedal such a 100A or 100F

XM-2 Specifications
SOUND
2 x Vase III as Digital Tone-wheel
GENERATOR
Pitches: 9 Pitches (Upper & Lower), 2 Pitches (Pedal)
HARMONIC
Wavefrom: B-type/Mellow/Brite(Upper and
DRAWBARS
Lower)/Muted/Normal/Synth1/Synth2(Pedal)
Harmonics: Second, Third, Fast Decay, Soft
PERCUSSION Adjustable: Touch, Velocity, Decay (Fast, Slow), Level (Soft,
Normal)
Master: 430 ~450 (1Hz Steps)
TUNING
Transpose: -6 ~ 0 ~ +6 semitones
Internal Leslie: On, Fast, Brake, Digital 2 Rotors, Leslie-
presets:122,147,710,760,825(adjustable)
Vibrato and Chorus: V1, V2, V3, C1, C2, C3, Upper&Lower,
On/off, Speed:5(6,10Hz~7,25Hz)
EFFECTS
Overdrive: Digital Overdrive
Equalizer: 3 Bands
Reverb: 10 Programs
Sustain: 5 Lengths (Pedal)
Functions: Split, Manual Bass
KEYMAP
Adjustable: Split Point, Lower Octave, Pedal Top Key
PATCHES 128 Patches
20 characters, 2 lines with 8 control switches and rotary
DISPLAY
encoder
STORAGE None
MIDI Templates: 4
DC-Input(9v), MIDI In1, In2, Out, Expression Pedal (Phone
CONNECTIONS jack)
Foot switch, Line out L/Mono,R, Headphones, 8-pin Leslie
ACCESSORY AC-Adaptor
DIMENSIONS 396mm(W) x 172mm(D) x 50mm(H)
WEIGHT 3,5kg
HARMONIC
9 Pitches, 1 set
DRAWBARS
Leslie: On, Fast
Vibrato and Chorus: V1, V2, V3, C1, C2, C3
Percussion: 2nd, 3rd, 2nd+3rd
Overdrive: On/Off
CONTROLLERS
Drawbar Select: Upper, Lower, Pedal
Presets: 1,2,3,4,5
Overdrive: Volume
Reverb: Volume
ACCESSORY HMC-1 cable
DIMENSIONS 182mm(W) x 233mm(D) x 47mm(H)
WEIGHT 1,04kg

Nord Electro OS V3.00 Update
It seem like we are getting an Operating System update with new features for the Nord
Electro in every B3 Player issue. So, for you out there that keep questioning whether Clavia
is going to support the Electro, I ask, “How can they not”? It is their best seller by far. You
can now download OS V3.00 from their website at www.clavia.se.
So, what did Clavia provide for us in OS V3.00?
New Features
• The organ and piano sections now have individual settings for the effects On/Off
parameter. This makes it easier to use the "instrument selector" to switch between
organ and piano sounds since the effects routing is remembered.
THIS IS BIG! It essentially doubles the saved presets. Now each preset can
have its own organ settings and its own piano settings.
• The sample format has changed to make it possible to include two of the grand
pianos from the Nord Stage sample library into the Nord Electro's library. The two
new grand pianos are a Yamaha C7 and a Steinway D.
• The Rotary Speaker simulation has been tuned to give a slightly brighter sound.
• Three different settings for the "Rotary Speaker" acceleration and deceleration were
implemented. A setting of "1" corresponds to the previously used characteristic.
Fixed Bugs
• Reloading a Program with the instrument selector set to Organ and then changing
the selector to Piano didn't load the piano sound selected.
• Setting the organ split point manually didn't always work.
• A small bug regarding the Clavinet filters was fixed.
Important Update Note
• The samples used for OS version 1.x and 2.x are not compatible with OS
V3.00, therefore updating the Nord Electro OS to v3.00 will make it necessary to
update to the latest piano library v3.x as well.
Any previously stored programs are not affected by the update and will still be present
afterwards.

Native Instruments B4 II 2.0.2 Update
Native Instruments has provided a minor update for the B4 II. The update version number
is 2.0.2. Here is what is included in the update:
Changes
• The Splash screen on startup in standalone mode remembers its Window position
which is then recalled when standalone mode is started again
Fixes
• Drive and Volume correction
• Presets updated (NOTE: presets saved in the original B4 II V 1 cannot be read by the
new 2.0.2 update)
• Removed the occasional noises that sometimes occurred upon switching presets
• Errors in Midi-Channel/Controller Assignment were fixed
• Pitchbend now starts from the note value, not as offset.

Gear
Tech Corner
Refurbishing Vintage Organ Pedals

By Lonnie Smith
Edited by Josiah C. Hoskins
This issue we are starting a new Column called “Tech

Corner”. In this column we will interview organ technicians
about many topics related to the upkeep and refurbishing
of vintage organs. In this first installment of this column
we interview master technician Lonnie Smith (note:
Lonnie Smith the technician, not the player).
B3 Player: Lonnie can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Lonnie: Well, my parents have been in the music business my whole life and I grew up in
the business. My dad played organ in the skating rinks in the 50’s and when I was little, I
learned how to skate before I walked. He played on old Hammond C2 and a pipe organ back
to back. That was my first introduction to listening to a Hammond out in the public although
I had heard recordings. My dad bought a new B3 before he went into business in 1961 and
we still have it.
In 1966, we went into business and at that time we didn’t sell Hammonds. We sold Kimball
organs and pianos and we sold a lot of them. From 1966 up through today, we have been a
family business with nobody outside the family working for us. The only time that somebody
else worked for us was in the service department before I got involved in it. We have only
had two other service people work for us.
When it was time to decide what I wanted to do I knew it wasn’t the music business
because I had just been around it too much. Every time that we went somewhere on
vacation we had to take an organ with us and I was just sick of it. I wanted to just work for
somebody else and go home and not worry about the world. When I got out of high school
my grandpa got me a job in a Chrysler automotive factory for three months. I walked out of
there on the 89th day and I told myself that I would never work in a factory again. So, I
went to college and started taking electronics and got a degree. At that time, we still had
somebody working for us so I worked for two years at an electronic facility that made
Bearcat police scanners which was an absolutely fantastic experience in the electronic world
because I was in an industrial setting fixing electronic equipment and not just patching it
together but actually getting in and doing the nuts and bolts of electronics. Eventually, I
decided that I didn’t want to follow somebody else’s orders and that was also the time when
the fellow that worked for my family’s music business quit. So, I decided to join the family
music business.
This was before the downfall of the organ industry in the late 70’s. I went to the factory
seminars at Kimball because they used to put on some of the best electronic seminars of
the organ manufacturers. I would also go to the week long seminars at the old Hammond
factory. So, I’m pretty well versed in Hammonds and all eras of electronics from tubes up
through today’s stuff. It is a constant battle trying to keep up-to-date and to keep myself
knowledgeable about what is out there, how you go about fixing it, and knowing the right
people to contact. In the mid ‘80’s, there was a fellow from Missouri that started this
organization called MITA, Musical Instrument Technician Association. Twice a year, MITA

would get all the organ manufacturers under one roof and put on a week long seminar.
Many of the organ companies at that time had stopped doing their in-house seminars. So, a
lot of the old instructors that were on the verge of retiring or had retired would go and
teach. These people had lots of experience and were excellent instructors. They would teach
old technology to younger guys and share their experience with the rest of the industry.
There would be about two or three hundred people showing up for these seminars. I got
involved with it at that time and I would go to the seminars. I would keep my ears open and
that’s how I gained a lot of experience in all of the brands of organs. In the early 90’s, they
downscaled to just one seminar a year which is in Las Vegas and naturally with me being in
my late forties, I’m one of the youngest guys in the industry. I still continue to be involved
with MITA because I learn something every time I go there because you never get through
learning in this field. I’ve met some incredible people who I have remained friends with
throughout the years and just like in all areas there are some guys that aren’t so good in it
but the good by far out weighs the bad. (Editors Note: Lonnie is Vice President of MITA
Officers and Staff for 2005-2006)
B3 Player: When did you start dealing Hammonds Organs?
Lonnie: We have always sold Hammonds at our store but they were mostly used
throughout our first fifteen years of business. About 1980 we took on the new Hammond
franchise which was at the end of the tone wheels. We never actually sold new tone wheel
Hammonds. We got into the Hammond multiplex organs which were some of the best home
organs ever built out there on the market and they still are today. Most of them are pretty
reliable and of course you have to know how to repair them because they are kind of
complex but they are still good organs. At the end of the organ era, when all of these
companies started going down the tubes, we basically survived on Leslie speakers and
Hammond tone wheel organs by selling them to churches and of course our service because
all of the music stores were dying and the people that were fixing them could not make a
living at it any more. Churches were getting rid of them and people were getting rid of them
from their homes because about that time the DX7 Yamaha came out and changed the
music world - not just the organs but everything. When that happened we survived on
selling and maintaining Hammond organs and started doing a lot of detailed work to them.
In 1989, there was a fellow named Glenn Derringer that came and took Hammond Suzuki
by the horns and that’s when there was the interest and a young fellow named Joey
DeFrancesco which revitalized all of the old organ players and stirred an interest back up in
the Hammond world. Then Hammond Suzuki came along and it not only purchased the
Hammond name but took over the Leslies and everything is under one roof now. It’s a
fantastic company and they are doing great stuff. People don’t understand that sometimes
there is a lot of negativity towards Hammond Suzuki but what they don’t understand is that
Hammond Suzuki is indirectly keeping the old Hammonds going and the old Hammonds are
keeping the new ones out there. So, it’s a marriage that people need to understand; it’s a
changing world and the new technology is great. Nothing will ever replace that invention
from 1935. It’s just like the Golden Gate Bridge because nobody is ever going to build
another bridge like that. If people would have an open mind and accept each generation of
electronics for what they are; it would be a lot better. The last four or five years since the
new B3 has come out has just taken another generation of electronics and put them on
another level. It’s some great stuff. Hammond is doing exciting things and we are probably
the largest Hammond dealer in the country. We keep getting stronger and we are thankful
for it. I love the business; unless I hit the Lottery I guess that I will be doing this for a long,
long while.
B3 Player: What are the steps that you take when a person brings an organ to you and
says that they want it to be the best that it can be?
Lonnie: The first thing that I do is look at where the organ is sitting. I then ask how the
organ is used. Finally, I try to assess that the organ is going to be worth putting work into
it. If it is an old 1940 BC or something of that age, and they want to use it for a church,

those organs are not worth putting anything into it. I have to look at whether the organ is
going to be refurbishable and if so what kind of money that someone is willing to put into it
compared to buying a good used one that is maybe in better shape. It’s not just the fact of
going in and looking at the organ and saying that I’m going to do this or that to it.
B3 Player: What is the checklist that you use to characterize the condition of an organ?
Lonnie: Well the first thing that I look at is the cabinet to see how beat up the cabinet is
and then I’ll sit down and play the organ and analyze what kind of speaker is on it. I want
to see if that is serviceable because it’s not going to do any good to fix the organ and not fix
the speaker or vice versa because both of them have to work at their peak in order for the
people to be satisfied with it. Once I determine what needs to be done then I work up a
price and then I let the customer decide what they want serviced. Most of the time on the
stuff that is forty or fifty years old I’m not going to band-aid stuff together because my
reputation is on the line and I don’t want to be looked at as a hacker or a butcher. But, if
the customer gives me the green flag, I will go in there and do everything that I can do to
make their organ sound better. I go through the electronics of the organ, the mechanical
aspects of it and try to fix everything as best that I can with the parts that are available. I
rebuild the pedals and do all of the mechanical things that that they are going to feel good
about; that will affect them by just the touch. Then I will do the electronics and upgrade
that if I need to and get the proper organ tone. After that then I deal with the speaker.
B3 Player: Let’s talk about the restoring of some of the parts such as the pedals
Lonnie: The pedals are a little different because we have about 11,000 square feet of
facility where we can do a lot of things. At that facility, we have a wood shop that can
duplicate pedal parts. In fact, we can actually make brand new pedal boards. The term
rebuilding is loosely use in the Hammond organ world. But as far as pedals, we can build
them or rebuild them. There were different eras of pedal boards just like there were
different eras of organs so that the ones that were used in the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and early
60’s are bullet proof pedal boards but then once you get up into the ones used in the late
60’s and 70’s they started doing things cheaper so we have to take them apart, rebuild
them, and put in the components that were like the ones in the earlier days. So the term,
rebuild is accurate when it concerns pedals.
B3 Player: Could you go through the steps of servicing the pedals because on the web they
sell these black felts and we didn’t use those at all when you serviced my A101 pedals, in
fact you used a number of different kinds of felts.
Lonnie: The felt that is sold over the internet is just to cover the contacts up on organ
pedal assembly itself which does nothing to enhance the reliability; it just makes the “click”
go away.

To completely service the pedals so they will play like they were when new we do the
following:
1. The pedals are completely disassembled.
2. Clean all parts and refurbish as needed (e.g., finish repairs, etc.).
3. Remove the side felts on the pedal sticks and install new side felts using a
compressed air powered staple gun (Be sure to use staples that are of the same size
as those removed).
4. Remove the old down stop felts and install new down stop felts. Note that these felts
are thick and use different and more robust staples.

5. Remove the green up stop felts. These are easy to remove in that they are just
placed on the guide rods with no adhesive or staples. Install new up stop felts.
6. Now that we have replaced all the felts, next you need to adjust the tension in the
pedal sticks. There are two issues here: first the tension needs to be adjusted to not
be too stiff or too loose and second the tension needs to be consistent from pedal to
pedal. See the photo on the next page that shows the pedal tension adjustment
bolts.

If all these felts are properly replaced and the tension is adjusted appropriately you are on
your way to making the pedals feel like they did when they were new.
B3 Player: So are the side felts sort of like key combs? Do they serve the same purpose?
Lonnie: Yeah. They keep the pedals from being sloppy from side to side. So, we have
covered the basic process of pedal rebuilding. At George Smith’s Music Center we can
recreate (build from scratch) B3 style pedals in our woodworking shop. We can also
reproduce individual pedal sticks for a set of pedals that has one warped stick. Pedals are
probably one of the easiest parts of a Hammond organ to put in “like new” condition. So,
that’s it for pedals in a nut shell.
Lonnie Smith is a master Hammond organ technician

and is the current Vice President of MITA for 2005-
2006. He lives in Anderson, Indiana (outside of
Indianapolis) and is part owner of George Smith’s
Music Center.
Web: www.georgesmithmusic.com
Telephone: (765)642-0243

Gear Review
Groove Tubes SFX 100 Stereo Keyboard Amplifier

Groove Tubes has come out with a new SFX 100 stereo keyboard amplifier that uses only
one lightweight cabinet. The new amp uses a patented SFX circuitry that takes the left and
right stereo input signals (from your keyboard) and maps them to front and side signals in
such a manner to generate a 300 degree stereo field. The front and side channels are
powered by 100 watts per channel. So, the question is can we get the Holy Grail – a
powerful, great sounding stereo keyboard amp – out of a single lightweight cabinet?
Who is the target audience?
Groove Tubes is trying to hit the keyboard and guitar modeling products which provide their
best sound when amplified in stereo. The 300 degree stereo field should certainly add
realism to Leslie simulations. Additionally, there is also a microphone preamp with reverb to
allow the performer to add vocals into the mix.
The size and power limits the amp to small venues such as small clubs or restaurants. The
SFX 100 can also be used as an on-stage monitor or as a practice amp.
Innovative Design
The SFX 100 is a compact live-music powered monitor.

To create a 300-degree field of stereo sound it uses a
100-watt per channel Class D power amp and dipole
speaker array. So, what is a dipole speaker array,
anyway? A dipole speaker array is composed of
closely spaced speakers in conjunction with spatial
signal processing.
In the SFX 100 the dipole speaker is used to create
what Groove Tubes calls an “acoustical space vortex”.
The secret to the stereo magic is that the left and right
input signals are electronically encoded, and then
acoustically decoded for a unique Front & Side
powered speaker system. The Front speaker is a
custom-made 8” Co-Ax speaker with a 1” compression
driver and 1” super tweeter. The Side speaker is a
specially designed 6.5” full range speaker mounted 90
degrees off axis to the front speaker. Level and Width
controls allow balance between the Front and Side
speakers to compensate for room acoustics (e.g., use
more Width for a dead room). A Subwoofer output is
available to handle larger gigs. NOTE: When a
subwoofer is added, a 100Hz roll off filter is activated
so the main SFX box gets louder from 100 Hz up. The photos below show the dipole speaker
arrangement of the side speaker.

Left Side Right Side

All the controls and connections are located on the back panel of the SFX 100. The top left
of the panel contains the inputs. The SFX 100 includes an XLR connector for a microphone
preamp with +48V phantom power (So you can you condenser or dynamic microphones).
There are two controls. The [MIC LEVEL] control adjusts the microphone preamp level and
the [REVERB] control adjusts the amount of stereo based Hall Reverb effect. The two stereo
inputs are all ¼ inch as is the output jack for the optional external subwoofer. On the right
side of the panel are the two main controls for the SFX 100. The [LEVEL] control adjusts the
overall system loudness. The [WIDTH] control is the most interesting adjustment. This
control balances the overall Front and Side system levels (i.e., increases the width of the
stereo effect when rotated clockwise). The recommended setting is to start at the 12 ‘o
clock position. For a “dead” room you would increase the width control and for an
“acoustically live” room you might reduce the width control.
Not only does the SFX 100 provide stereo in one cabinet, it is also small. It measures just
18” high and 11” deep and wide, and weighs only 28 lbs.

Using the SFX 100
I used the SFX 100 in two environments: in the studio and at band practice. My studio
allows me to judge the sound of equipment in an environment not hampered by room
imperfections. The use at band practice allows me to assess how the amp performs with
other amps – whether is has sufficient volume and does it cut through the mix.
First, let’s test the sound in the studio. In the spirit of a lightweight system I will test the
SFX 100 with the Nord Electro 73. The first observation was that the SFX 100 was not all
that loud. Then I remembered the weak output of the Nord Electro and so I thought that I
would check it out it out with my Yamaha P90 (stage piano) – whoa, it was loud! Then I
tested it with my Hammond XK-3 and there we go, it is loud again. So, if you are going to
use it with the Nord Electro you need an auxiliary signal booster. Since, I wanted to use this
as a lightweight practice setup I chose a small and inexpensive Behringer Eurorack UB502
that has two stereo line inputs (and a mic pre). This setup will allow me to use my Yamaha
S30 synthesizer and the Nord Electro together. Using this setup I set the level setting for
the Yamaha S30 at 0 (or unity) and the Nord Electro at +7.5 to get even volumes from both
keyboards.
So, how did the SFX 100 perform? The sound that it produced in combination with the Nord
Electro was very seductive indeed. So, what was so seductive? The sound just surrounds
you, very similar to a Leslie. Now of course a Leslie gives a full 360 degrees of sound.
Stereo gives you a two 2-D sound but it depends a lot on the position of the listener as to
what sound movement the listener perceives. With the unique set up of the SFX 100 – two
speakers in one cabinet, close together, but projecting sound in about 300 degrees – the
sound is very Leslie like in several ways. For example like a Leslie the SFX 100 has:
• One cabinet
• Sound that the listener’s perceives a moving
• A large radius of project – 300 degrees
In the studio, the SFX 100 with the Nord Electro (plus a gain boost) sounded just great. The
sound imaging was the just down right impressive. The SFX 100 handled the highs and
mids, but was short on performance (as expected with an 8 and 6 inch speakers) in the
bass.
Next, I tested out the SFX 100 in a band setting. Our practice room is 20 x 14 feet and
since we play classic rock our volume is can easily get on the loud side. I was playing a
Yamaha S30 and Nord Electro 73 through the Behringer Eurorack UB502 and then on to the
SFX 100. So, what were the results:
• Band members liked what they called the “surround sound” which they said was
much more like a Leslie than one mono speaker or two stereo speakers.
• The SFX 100 was able to keep up in volume for the typical rock organ work – it
would not work for jazz left hand bass. Also, the volume was on the edge as we got
louder.
• The tone and sound quality was very nice as long as you stay in the mid to high
range.
• At 28 pounds even one of my band members offered to carry it.
• It takes up very little space in the practice area.

B3 Player Summar y
Groove Tubes SFX 100
Retail: $699 USD
Street: $599 USD
Pros:
• Stereo with one cabinet
• 300 degree project fills room
• Microphone preamp with reverb
• Realistic Leslie simulation
projection
• Very small – 18” H, 11” D, 11” W
• Very light – 28 lbs
Cons:
• For good bass have to add
subwoofer
• Not enough volume if stage volume
very loud
Recommended Uses:
• Excellent for studio, practice and
moderate volume gigs

New Releases
Joey DeFrancesco
Organic Vibes
I had a chance to visit with Joey in Phoenix about

his newly released CD Organic Vibes on
Concord Records. We met in Joey’s RV parked
outside of Bobby C’s a Jazz Club owned by Bobby
Clayton who was Jimmy Smith’s last manager.
B3 Player: As with all of your CD’s this is not just a CD of music, it’s a CD beyond the
music. You have a theme or something is going on. I guess that this does not happen by
magic. Do you think about these things and do something?
Joey D: I don’t like to go into the studio and have a jam session. I like for it to be a focused
project, but having said that I still like a certain looseness so that it feels good. Like I like to
say, “You go into the studio and you do your thing and just let God walk through the room
and then everything will be cool.” I’m not a religious fanatic or anything but I’m a heavy
believer. That’s how I feel about that.
B3 Player: What was running through your mind when you came up with Organic Vibes?
Joey D: I play with Bobby Hutcherson (vibraphone). He is the main artist on this record as
well as George Coleman (Tenor saxophone) and Ron Blake (saxophone), along with Jake
Langley (guitar) and Byron Landham (drums). There is a story behind each one of them. I
played with Bobby Hutcherson about four years ago in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the
Craftsmen Guild. It was just put together to promote it and they loved the two of us. They
said what do you think of this? I said, “Man I love Bobby. I’d love to do that, you know.” I
had all of his records with all of his stuff from when he was very young and all of that. So
we went and we played it and we hit it off. It was incredible – the whole vibe, to say it,
because if you know me and my style you know that I don’t play one way. I can play
anything, any bag. I can go outside; I can play the shuffles; the greasy bluesy bebop
because I love all of that stuff.
So in that period of time when Michael was setting up the arrangements to record with
Bobby I did a week in Jazz Alley in Washington, D.C. with George Coleman as guest artist
and we hit it off. He is known for being a tough guy. He showed up and he was wonderful,
man. I guess that if these guys like you and the situation is something that they want to do
they are not such tough guys, which is pretty normal. If somebody is not doing their job,
you are going to be a little aggravated. Then I said, “Mike, let’s get George Coleman on a
date too.” So now it is starting to become a big, historical kind of thing. Of course George
was on some early Jimmy Smith records but my big influence from George was the stuff
that he did with Miles Davis, of course. So then that was cool.
Then I contacted my very dear friend Ron Blake (tenor sax, flute). I think that he is playing
baritone on the Saturday Night Live Band now. I love him, man. He is to me one of the
greatest young tenor players on the scene today. So I saw him and I thought about him and
George together, know kind of like the vibe with me and Jimmy (Smith) you know. Yeah,
let’s do it.

Byron Landham has been with me for about twenty years and Jake Langley who has been
with me for a couple of years from Canada and we went into the studio and I wrote some
music. Everybody was on my case, “you’ve got to write some stuff.” So I wrote the music
with what I had in mind for the sound of the instrumentation and the artists that were going
to play with me. Then we went into the studio and we did it. It was magic.
B3 Player: Did you do arrangements?
Joey D: I did everything. I have a very good friend named Raul who is really into
computers that helped because I can’t read very well and forget about trying to write what I
play. If you write out a solo of mine, forget it I can’t play it.
B3 Player: You don’t need to read it. You can play it.
Joey D: Yeah. I can read a simple chord chart. You know when I say read, I mean sit down
and play some Mozart, you know. There are people that can do that but they can’t swing
and they can’t improvise.
B3 Player: Some people can read great, but they can’t deviate from the written music.
Joey D: That’s right. And they are totally like that. Jimmy Smith couldn’t read, Wes
Montgomery couldn’t read you know a lot of these guys can’t read. I did some serious
writing out here and it just evolved under different influences and styles that I have been
thinking about. Whenever I make a record, it’s whatever I’m into at that particular time. I
mean I’m a real pain in the ass with this stuff because I change concepts about every three
days.
B3 Player: Your new CD Organic Vibes seems to have a real modern sound.
Joey D: Yeah. Modern is a funny word because really we are still trying to get past Charlie
Parker and John Coltrane. Each musician of a different generation has previous people to
learn from, like I was born in 1971, so I have what 50 years worth of a catalog to deal with.
With guys like Jimmy Smith, there was nobody doing that except Wild Bill Davis to start. I
was lucky because I have all of the influences of the music during my generation too. I liked
Michael Jackson and I liked all of that other stuff. Everybody’s generation plays a certain
way, so it is more modern in the sense that the style which the organ is usually played. I
really thought about this record. Most of the guys playing now, there are some good
players, but they are not doing anything too innovative. That’s good because we want to
hear the tradition. To use my dad as an example, he just recorded a new record that is
great. I produced it so you know. But I could be playing and the place is packed and I’m
playing all my stuff and the place is going crazy and I’m playing all of these things but he
can come and lay down a shuffle and just blow the top off of the joint. It’s about what
moves you. If it moves you then it is happening. But I like to try. I’ve been playing for thirty
years. You try to evolve; you try to come up with different things.
B3 Player: I noticed that Colleen (Joey’s wife) slipped into this CD as a song.
Joey D: I specifically wrote that song for her and I’m really pleased to play it.
B3 Player: Was there anything unusual that happened when you were making the CD?
Joey D: Everything was pretty smooth; there are things that I won’t mention.
B3 Player: Well, thanks and good luck with Organic Vibes.

New Releases
Linda Dachtyl
Blue Bop LDB3 and Friends
I had a chance to speak to Linda about her new

CD that is about to be released.
B3 Player: Linda can you tell us about your new
CD?
Linda: I wanted to do a real honest to goodness CD. I was talking to Tony (Monaco) about
this and he told me that if I could have a little patience until he got his studio done then I
could record at his new studio. That’s how that came to be. We did the sessions over at
Tony’s; we did three tunes in September 2004 with the LDB3 group, Bob Frascotti (tenor
sax), Giles Ponitcello (guitar), Cary Dachtyl (drums), and me. We did three tunes there and
then a couple of months later I went in with a trio, no sax, and did two tunes. To back up a
little bit, when Tony and I first talked about this he said the Hank Marr had just passed so
this would have been about two years ago. I think that he died in March of ’04. Tony said
that he was going to pull out one of Hank’s old tunes called “Greasy Spoon” and put it on
his next record. He said that I should look at Hank’s old catalog since I studied with him and
look at some stuff to do of Hank’s. So, I narrowed it down and since Tony had picked
“Greasy Spoon” I picked “Silver Spoon” and “Bridge to Shangri-La” which is kind of a
“Stormy Monday” 12/8 kind of thing with basically the same kind of changes. And
“Tenderly” which is the first tune that Hank taught me on the piano and that particular tune
always had a special meaning for Hank because he told me that when he auditioned for the
music school at Ohio State back whenever that was he said that he couldn’t offer to play
anything classical he said that he came up with “Tenderly” as his audition piece to get into
Ohio State to study piano at least from my recollection.
B3 Player: That one is well traveled.
Linda: Yes, very much so. I decided that instead of doing another Hank Marr composition to
do that instead because it has special meaning for me and the connection with Hank. I
ended up playing with the alumni of his quartet: Dean Walker on the sax, Tom Carroll on
guitar, and Jim Rupp on drums. We did three numbers together. I then called in Shaun
Carney who’s a popular blues leader here in Columbus; he’s one of the younger fellows, but
very well known in the blues world around here and regionally as well. He ended up playing
on a couple of numbers also.
B3 Player: Were all of the tracks laid down with everybody playing at the same time?
Linda: That’s correct. Pretty much live in the studio. We would do two or three takes and
pick the best one out of that but essentially what went down that day is what went down.
Tony has the ability to do a little tweaking. I think that we might have over dubbed a solo
here and there but not mine; my tracks had to be just what it was. That’s pretty much it.
B3 Player: That’s unusual in the recording studio today.
Linda: To tell you the truth, other than some more modern genres of jazz I just can’t
imagine it being done any other way with the rhythm section in there playing that kind of

stuff. Tony’s got the room to do it and a very nice environment to record in and I highly
recommend his studio for anyone that is considering doing an organ record or whatever. My
experience was doing an organ record at his place.
B3 Player: Can you tell us a little about the equipment that you used to do your recording?
Linda: Tony gave me the choice of three organs: his ’55
B3, the new B3, and an A100. I ended up playing on the
A100. My gig organ is an A100. I have a ’58 B3 and a ’64
A100 and both of them have been brought up to snuff by
Sal Azzarelli. I found them for next to nothing and they
were in pretty bad shape and he brought those up. I
ended up playing on the A100 because the console was
more comfortable for me with a Leslie 122.
B3 Player: So you ended up using the A100 on all of the
tracks?
Linda: On all of the tracks I played that organ because it
was comfortable. I thought about the B3 also, but when I
sat down at the A100 I thought well O.K. let’s just go
with this. The group isn’t called LDA100, but you know, it was all done on that A100 out
there. I wanted to play with a vintage Hammond. I have nothing against the new
technology, but it felt better to me and that was the instrument that I was familiar with and
I went with that. I’m kind of old school.
B3 Player: What’s the title of the CD and what is the release date?
Linda: I call the CD Blue Bop LDB3 and Friends because basically the core group has
most of the pieces but they were some other pieces on there that had different side men on
there. The release date is April 11, 2006.

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B3 Player

Digital Download Magazine www.B3Player.com

Jazz Corner Organ Bassment

Rock Corner New Release Interviews

Tech Corner Gear

April / May 2006 Issue 3 $9.95 USD

B3 Player Contents B3 Player

B3 Player April / May 2006

Contributors Tony Monaco Rock Corner 28

Copyright B3 Player 2006 All material is Tech Corner 71

Issue 3 Dr. Joho Music © 2006 All Rights Reserved 2

From the Editor

Tony Monaco, B3 Renaissance Man

What’s in this Issue

Issue 3 Dr. Joho Music © 2006 All Rights Reserved 3

Musik Messe 2006

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Issue 3 Dr. Joho Music © 2006 All Rights Reserved 5

More “Real” CLASSIC RIFFS

JOS Hobo Flats Riff

The suggested Organ and Leslie Settings are:

NOTE: In this example the riff is performed on the upper manual.

Issue 3 Dr. Joho Music © 2006 All Rights Reserved 6

JOS Hobo Flats Riff in F

Soundfiles of the “JOS Hobo Flats

Issue 3 Dr. Joho Music © 2006 All Rights Reserved 7

Tony Monaco II-V-I Riff

Issue 3 Dr. Joho Music © 2006 All Rights Reserved 8

Used by permission from Tony Monaco

Issue 3 Dr. Joho Music © 2006 All Rights Reserved 9

Soundfiles of the TM II-V7-I Riff

Issue 3 Dr. Joho Music © 2006 All Rights Reserved 10

Tony Monaco Chord Sputter Riff

Issue 3 Dr. Joho Music © 2006 All Rights Reserved 11

TM Chord Sputter Riff

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Soundfiles of the TM Chord Sputter

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Tony Monaco Gospel Riff

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Soundfiles of the TM Gospel Riff

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Think Modularly, Play Swingingly!

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Richard “Groove” Holmes

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Soundfiles of the Bassline Modules

Gear used to record examples

Scott Hawthorn has been a Hammond organ

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Comping and Soloing Tony Monaco Style

V Chord -> II-V

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