Funky Organ Grooves Book with audio CD [Paperback]

Gordon Andrew (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2001

There is an increased interest in playing the organ these days as many keyboard players are adding organ modules, organs, software etc., to their array of instruments. This book consists of 57 riffs, in many different keys, and covers a wide range of organ styles including Blues, Funk, Gospel, Jazz, Latin and Reggae. The music notation consists of the right and left hand parts as well as a bass line.

Although primarily written and recorded with the organ in mind, pianists and keyboard players will also find the material in this book very useful. The artists that these styles have been influenced by have a range of popularity from the 1960's to the present day and at the back of the book is a discography that will be of help in selecting CD's to listen to. Jazz, Acid-Jazz Organists include: Jimmy Smith, Richard "Groove" Holmes, "Brother" Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, "Big" John Patton, Larry Young, Charles Earland, Don Patterson, Freddie Roach, Shirley Scott, Lonnie Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, Barbara Dennerlein, Larry Goldings, John Medeski (Medeski, Martin & Wood), Ronnie Foster, Reuben Wilson, James Taylor (James Taylor Quartet), Les McCann. Funk, Rock and R&B Organists include: Bobby Byrd (James Brown), Booker T. Jones (Booker T & The MG's), Lonnie Jordan (War), Art Neville (The Meters and the Neville Brothers), Billy Preston, Sly Stone (Sly & The Family Stone), Chester Thompson (Tower Of Power (Santana), Greg Rolie (Santana), Gregg Allman (Allman Brothers), Keith Emerson (The Nice, Emerson Lake & Palmer), John Lord (Deep Purple), John Novello, Felix Cavaliere (The Young Rascals), Steve Winwood (Spencer Davis, Traffic), Chuck Leavell (Rolling Stones), Michael McDonald, Adam Scone (Sugarman Three). Blues & Gospel Organists include: Dr. John, Lucky Peterson, Reese Wynans, Otis Spann, Mike Finnegan, Richard Tee (Stuff, Paul Simon), Al Kooper, John Mayall. Reggae Organists include: Jackie Mittoo (Skatalites), Ansel Collins (Dave & Ansel Collins). Most of the above mentioned organists have had a major influence on my keyboard playing in one way or another and I would strongly suggest listening and learning from these great musicians.

Product Details

• Paperback: 75 pages
• Publisher: A.D.G. Productions (February 2, 2001)
• Language: German
• ISBN-10: 1882146859
• ISBN-13: 978-1882146857
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 8.7 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,170,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Creative and Inspiring Introduction to Organ Styles..., December 23, 2004

By 

Dan Raymond "greatwebdesign4u" (Centennial, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Funky Organ Grooves Book with audio CD (Paperback)

I don't write too many reviews but felt this book was a very pleasant surprise so some positive feedback was in order.

The author did an exceptional job of exposing me to a wide variety of contemporary organ styles. This book is chock full of creative riffs, rhythms, and grooves in the rock, R&B, jazz, blues, reggae, and Latin styles. The author never seems to run out of inspiring ideas. (And if you are an improviser like me you can use them as a launching pad for your own stuff.)

I'm a weekend warrior musician whose playing had recently been stuck in a rut. Fortunately, after working through this book my playing has reached a new level of creativity and fun.

The enclosed CD is well recorded and easy to follow.

I can't understand one of the reviews below. I don't think the intent of this book was to concentrate specifically on the Hammond B-3; rather, I believe the author's intent was to show what kinds of styles and idioms the organ (in general) is capable of. In fact it might be kind of an advantage that drawbars and Leslie settings were not covered, because this book could be of great advantage to piano or synth players as well. True, there are some pentatonic-based riffs in the book, but that is exactly what I was looking for and very appropriate for the blues, rock, R&B, and other genres Mr. Gordon covers.

If you are looking for some new creativity and inspiration in your organ or keyboard playing this would be a great place to start. Highly recommended!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very helpfull and usefull book., December 22, 2004

By 

linda guillemette (St. Jean Chrys., quebec Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Funky Organ Grooves Book with audio CD (Paperback)

showed me exactly what I was looking for -- i've tried to take a lot of this stuff off c.d's and it's very time consuming. This book makes it unnecessary to go that route, and the grooves really cover all the territory you need for this instrument. Really good learning aid and it has helped me a great deal. Especially liked the section on reggae-nice addition.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful, but cheesy., July 30, 2007

By 

J. Baker - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Funky Organ Grooves Book with audio CD (Paperback)

I bought this book just getting into playing the organ. The level of difficulty on the exercises in this book cover a wide range. Stylistically there is a lot of stuff that is very useful. The CD included is great to use for practice. The only downside I found to it is most of the exercises in it are extremely cheesy, but even so it is a great segway into the bigger stuff. Check out the first couple pages that are free and give them a play, it's a good measure of the book.