Charles Kynard’s gospel and blues-drenched first album as a leader didn’t cut a bad figure. 

I always thought that Elliott, the boy from E.T., and Elliott Smith, the greatest songwriter since Lennon & McCartney, were the only ones that had and extra ‘t’ behind their name. Positively off-beat.

Apparently not. It was Smith’s own choosing, but E.T.’s Elliott Taylor (definitely) and Charles Elliott Kynard (likely) had had no say in the matter.

Kynard, born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1933, may not have been the greatest organist since pioneer Jimmy Smith, but no mistaking was a top-rate B3 burner.

Kynard is known for a feature on Tom Waits’s Blue Valentines in 1978. That was a good ending to a career – he sadly passed away in 1979 – in jazz music which started in the early 1950’s in Kansas City. Apparently – liner notes reveal – Kynard was an excellent Oscar Peterson-styled pianist who switched to organ by fault when a club manager requested he’d play the house organ.

As a teenager, Kynard had regularly snuck in the Metropolitan Baptist Church to play the church organ. In 1957, Kynard already formed organ combos, notably with tenor saxophonist Tex Johnson. By the way, his father Ben Kynard was alto and baritone saxophonist and arranger in Lionel Hampton’s band, not to mention composer of perennial favorite Red Top.

Kynard’s stint on Prestige from 1968-71 sealed his reputation as a groove maestro, a greasy and funky coupling with, among others, Grant Green, Houston Person and Bernard Purdie. Consequently, he recorded a couple of albums for Mainstream.

His debut as a leader in 1963, Where It’s At – recorded shortly after his appearance on Sonny Stitt’s My Mother’s Eyes – doesn’t disappoint. A curious  but soulful effort, dividing sides into gospel and blues. Evidently, soul jazz organ made the bar and club audience in the 1950s and 1960s think about church, that’s part of the reason of why it stuck, and gospel was already in the bones of Wild Bill Davis and Jimmy Smith, so it wasn’t essential to seduce the record buying audience with straightforward gospel music, the message was already sent to it subliminally.

But Kynard likely thought it couldn’t hurt to remind people of their heritage, which of course, should only meet with consent. Actually, he was doing better than Gene Ammons, the biggest soul jazz star besides Jimmy Smith, whose gospel record Preachin’ is a mediocre effort in a string of great and groovy records on Prestige in the 1960’s.

Side A is Kynard’s sermon and he’s attending to the Army of The Lord with two warhorses, Amazing Grace and Motherless Child, while surprising it with lesser-known repertoire, I Want To Be Ready, The Lord Will Make A Way Somehow and, I’ll Fly Away. His band is good, couldn’t been otherwise with saxophonist Clifford Scott, guitarist Howard Roberts and drummer Milt Turner (from the Ray Charles band) in tow, working up a strong gospel beat and a lot of heat. Though it’s I’ll Fly Away featuring guitarist Ray Crawford and drummer Leroy Henderson, plus Ronnell Bright on piano, a roaring ditty, that takes the cake.

Kynard uses side B to sing the blues. Though his sound is still a bit (too) old-fashioned, full register and all, his playing is tasteful, not to mention including superb bass playing, and he contributes swinging solos on Arnett Cobb’s Smooth Sailing and the sprightly blues line Blue Greens And Beans. Clifford Scott, a welcome old-school big-toned addition on any soul jazz record, fires up the hearth of Cecil Gant’s slow blues I Wonder, which also thrives on the saucy licks of guitarist Howard Roberts. Climax Where It’s At is a Jimmy McGriff-style r&b cooker.

Either behind the pulpit or in the juke joint, Kynard proved to be a debutant with plenty Hammond organ chops.

Listen to Where It’s At on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g95RuK-_FNU&list=RDg95RuK-_FNU&start_radio=1