Don Patterson

Don Patterson Goin’ Down Home (Cadet 1963/66)

- Francois 4 Comments

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I picked up organist Don Patterson’s Cadet album Goin’ Down Home at that indelible Little Giant of a record store, Waxwell Records in Amsterdam. Collector’s frenzy. Shaky hands, dizzy spells, blood pressure climbing high into the sky blue sky…

Don Patterson - Goin' Down Home

Personnel

Don Patterson (organ), Paul Weeden (guitar), Billy James (drums)

Recorded

in January, 1963 at Ter-Mar Studios, Chicago

Released

as Cadet 787 in 1964

Track listing

Side A:
Little Duck
John Brown’s Body
I’m Just A Lucky So And So
Frankie MC
It’s Magic
Side B:
Goin’ Down Home
Trick Bag
1197 Fair
Work Song


Why so elated, you ask? It’s hardly one of the Holy Grails of jazz collecting, right?

Because it’s Don Patterson, for Chrissake!

Stumbling upon Goin’ Down Home is bingo for a Hammond organ geek (slash: Don Patterson completist). You’re bound to find one on eBay, but seldom in a record store, at least not in my zip code area. What’s more romantic than zip code area record collecting? It sure beats watching High Fidelity with my favorite inflattable doll.

Goin’ Down Home is Patterson’s session debut as a leader in 1963, but it wasn’t released until 1966. By then, Patterson was one of the premier modern jazz organists. Possibly, Cadet eventually tried to capitalise on the growing reputation of Patterson as an artist on the Prestige label.

I’ve written extensively about Don Patterson in the past. Recap: the Columbus, Ohio-born Patterson was a pianist who, inspired by Jimmy Smith, started playing organ in 1956. The trio of Patterson, guitarist Paul Weeden and drummer Billy James struck up a fruitful cooperation with saxophone giant Sonny Stitt from 1959 to 1964 (Patterson and Billy James kept recording with Sonny Stitt throughout the sixties); Patterson also played on albums of Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and sax prodigy Eric Kloss. Many of his Prestige albums included the crackerjack guitar work of Pat Martino.

Drugs-related problems haunted Patterson at the turn of the decade. Patterson made a comeback in the early seventies with two albums on Muse, arguably Patterson’s ‘masterpieces’: The Return Of Don Patterson and These Are Soulful Days. Patterson kept performing, if under the radar, till his passing in 1988.

Overshadowed by pioneering legend Jimmy Smith and ‘the Coltrane of organ jazz’ Larry Young, Patterson nevertheless contributed significantly to organ jazz playing. A melodic player and a master of restraint, Patterson squeezed every little bit out of the tenor/organ combo format and cooperated with first-class adventurous musicians as Booker Ervin and Eddie Daniels. Having started out as a pianist, Patterson favored a combination of long, flowing bebop lines and tasteful blues statements.

If not a quantum leap, Patterson’s development from Goin’ Down Home to his official 1964 debut as a leader, The Exciting New Organ Of Don Patterson, is remarkable. His Cadet album fits nicely in the format of the Chess subsidiary label, focusing on basic but nifty r&b and blues lines. A big foot remains in the field of forefather Wild Bill Davis, as Patterson employs a rather dated ‘open register’. It’s the kind of work Patterson delivered on the 1962 albums of Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis, I Only Have Eyes For You and Trackin’ and Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons’ Boss Tenors In Orbit. Excellent chops, rather cheesy sound.

A smaller foot is set in the area of intense, linear playing with the modern jazz sound as invented by Jimmy Smith. Patterson’s rare ability to stack surprise upon surprise in John Brown’s Body (a tune Patterson played on Stitt/Ammons’ Boss Tenors In Orbit and revisited on Satisfaction) cautiously foreshadows the adventurous hard bop of ’S Bout Time from The Exciting New Organ Of Don Patterson.

A striking aspect of the album is the spirited interplay between Patterson and Billy James. And you’ll want this album for Patterson’s version of Duke Ellington’s I’m Just A Lucky So-And-So. Blues seldom comes as graceful as this.

Eric Kloss Love And All That Jazz (Prestige 1966)

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Pipe-smoking Eric Kloss was seventeen when he recorded Love And All That Jazz. It was the second album for the young alto and tenor saxophonist on Prestige. Quite exceptional for a young man to be appointed leader from the start, but Kloss was an exceptional talent. At age twelve Kloss sat in with the bebop giant and fellow saxophonist Sonny Stitt, renowned for blowing many asses of stage. Kloss, blind since birth, received plenty encouragement from the fearsome saxophonist.

Eric Kloss - Love And All That Jazz

Personnel

Eric Kloss (alto & tenor saxophone), Don Patterson (organ, A1-A4), Vinnie Corrao (guitar, A1-A4), Billy James (drums, A1-A4), Richard “Groove” Holmes (organ, B1-B3), Gene Edwards (B1-B3), Grady Tate (drums, B1-B3)

Recorded

on March 14 & April 11, 1966 at Rudy van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Released

as PR 7469 in 1966

Track listing

Side A:
You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To
Just For Fun-K
The Shadow Of Your Smile
No Blues
Side B:
Love For Sale
I’m Glad There Is You
Gemini


His playing is impressive both for its technical mastery and bravado. Indeed, sometimes the ideas stop flowing and Kloss finds himself in a neverland, squirting meaningless titbits to regain his posture. But it’s only logical, considering his age, that his conception was not as yet full-grown. It was developing rapidly and excitedly. There are moments of charming recklessness as Pensylvannia-born Kloss blasts his way through the standard You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To. Kloss meanders through scales and low and high registers with the sudden aplomb of Eric Dolphy. His tone and attack is reminiscent of Stitt. Kloss himself brings long, crunchy wails, fiery, suprising twists and off-the-cuff double-time gymnastics in between.

Kloss would go on to record a highly proficient string of records for Prestige and Muse in the sixties and early seventies, subsequently incorporating popular music as well as avantgarde features into his hardbop bag. Unfortunately, Kloss largely disappeared from the scene after 1981, due to a struggle with asthma.

Waltz blues Just For Fun-K, that consists of a droll theme and kinky extension, finds Kloss building tension comprehensively. His alto work on Cole Porter’s Love For Sale is more virtuoso than heartfelt. The manner in which Kloss strikes a balance between tenderness and hard-boiled bluff in ballad I’m Glad There Is You, however, proofs Kloss doesn’t merely engage in youthful show-offs.

The album is divided between two backing groups. Don Patterson’s trio proves to be better attuned to the hi-voltage style of Eric Kloss. Their cooperation on Kloss’ debut album, Introducing Eric Kloss, might’ve been the reason of their rapport. The pulsating drum rolls of Billy James spur Kloss on and Patterson’s comping behind Kloss is urgent and his solo’s are well above average. The Groove Holmes trio is not bad. Guitarist Gene Edwards plays an uplifting bit in Love For Sale. But the sound of the organ is harsher and creates a messy atmosphere. And the more conservative style of Groove Holmes on this album doesn’t match as well with Kloss than does Patterson’s.

That doesn’t stop Kloss from forcefully blowing his way through Jimmy Heath’s Gemini. But the session with Don Patterson is more coherent. A demanding and provocative session of the young Eric Kloss.

YouTube: Love For Sale

Don Patterson The Return Of Don Patterson (Muse 1972/1974)

- Francois 2 Comments

The Return Of Don Patterson was a return to the recording studio for the Columbus, Ohio born organist. Patterson had a steady run of solo recordings for Prestige in the sixties, until drug problems sent his career off on a wild tangent. During the interval of 1969-71 Patterson was decidedly under the radar, gigging exclusively in and around Gary, Indiana. The session for The Return Of Don Patterson found Patterson in excellent form, cooperating well with a remarkably proficient group of players he was heretofore unacquainted with.

Don Patterson - The Return Of

Personnel

Don Patterson (organ), Eddie Daniels (tenor, soprano & alto saxophone), Ted Dunbar (guitar), Freddie Waits (drums)

Recorded

on October 30, 1972 at RCA Studios, NYC

Released

as Muse 5005 in 1974

Track listing

Side A:
Jesse Jackson
Theme From The Odd Couple
Lori
Side B:
Theme From Love Story
The Lamp Is Low


It opens with Jesse Jackson, a blues with a lithe but dynamic back beat, dedicated to the ‘Country Preacher’. It’s evident from the start that this is not going to be a generic soul jazz record. First in line, Ted Dunbar immediately makes this clear. He employs a dry, ‘plucky’ sound and an authoritative attack and just when you think he shall go left he turns to the right; in short, he plays very interesting guitar devoid of clichés. Patterson lays down funky single note lines, using his right hand almost exclusively, which keeps your attention focused.

For the remainder of the album – that sounds crisp and fresh after forty years, indeed to the extent that it could convincingly disguise as a contemporary record – the band proves to be capable of handling varied repertoire. I’m particularly enamoured of the way saxophonist Eddie Daniels sweetly states the theme (no pun intended) of Theme From The Odd Couple and of the sense of dynamics and swing he employs in his solo in Theme From Love Story – a subtle march that evolves into a driving shuffle. Soulful and intelligent blowing, both on alto and soprano. A treat! The latter is but one example of the propulsive rhythm that drummer Freddie Waits provides; using tasteful and spontaneous accents throughout, Waits is volatile at the song’s climax, kicking his bandmates’ butts with crazy, amazing press rolls.

Master of ceremony Don Patterson is in fine form himself, concluding his solo in bassist Jimmy Garrison’s bebop figure Lori with an organist’s take on Wes Montgomery-style octaves and transforming Maurice Ravel’s The Lamp Is Low into a typically coherent and endearing ballad.

Don Patterson was known as a melodically creative organist and bandmates Freddie Waits and Ted Dunbar could be described as young veterans with a bag full of diverse experience. But at the time many people must’ve been surprised by the confident and unorthodox work of Eddie Daniels. A versatile reedman, he recorded one album for Prestige in 1967 – First Prize – and held an underrated tenor chair in the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra; thereafter Daniels has evolved into a renowned innovator of the clarinet, jazz and classical. Considering Daniels’ excellent technique on this album, in hindsight this seems quite logical.

Why not conclude with one of Ira Gitlers’ apt and sensible statements in his sleevenotes of The Return Of Don Patterson?

“There are a lot of people who turn up their noses at the cliche that the tenor-organ combination has been for some time now. This set is for them. And it will also open the noses of the freaks who can’t get enough of saxophone and organ. Don Patterson doesn’t overwhelm you. He’s got so many other things going, he doesn’t have to do it that way.”

Indeed, he doesn’t. I’d like to add that one of the many other things Patterson’s got going is an outstanding bunch of sidemen.

YouTube: Theme From The Odd Couple

Don Patterson The Exciting New Organ Of Don Patterson (Prestige 1964)

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A very confident Don Patterson made the most of his de facto debut (Goin’ Down Home was a Patterson session as a leader for Cadet in 1963, but was not released until 1966) on Prestige. Eschewing the use of guitar, The Exciting New Organ Of Don Patterson stresses the potential of the organ in the era of advanced hard bop.

Don Patterson - The Exciting New Organ

Personnel

Don Patterson (organ), Booker Ervin (tenor sax), Billy James (drums)

Recorded

on May 12, 1964 at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Released

as PR 7323 in 1964

Track listing

Side A:
S’Bout Time
Up In Betty’s Room
Oleo
Side B:
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
The Good Life


Presumably, as it goes, Prestige headquarters called it The Exciting New Organ Of Don Patterson for marketing purposes primarily, along the same lines of, for instance, Atlantic’s idea behind Ornette Coleman’s The Shape Of Jazz To Come; not a title Coleman was said to be particularly fond of, and I assume Patterson also was too bright and modest to appreciate his album title very much. Furthermore, isn’t it a bit shaky on a linguistic level? Naturally, it isn’t the organ of Don Patterson that is exciting. As if said Hammond B3 would make an entree in some corner bistro, where two Scarlett Johansson-type dames’d whisper: “Wow, that organ’s really exciting!” Albeit a tad overweight, one might add. Of course, what they say, either consciously or winsomely, is that the man seated behind that giant machine made up of wood, metal tonewheel, electromagnetic pick-up, a row of keyboards and countless pulls and stops, creates quite a fervor. In that case, they’re correct. As far as ‘new’ (music) is concerned: the adjective had become stale even by then; in jazz, as in most art forms, an artistic endeavor is never completely new, but adds fresh (entertaining and/or often disconcerting) views to an already rich heritage. It’s partly new though in the manner hereafter discussed.

Three years of experience playing alongside tenor and alto giant Sonny Stitt saw Patterson cooperating with guitar player Paul Weeden, and the remaining decade he would strike up an engaging companionship with Pat Martino. Martino and Patterson certainly inspired eachother to career heights. Without the guitar, however, Patterson is far from handicapped. The dynamics are not so much better as different. A whole bit of elbow room is created and judged by the manner in which Patterson takes it, for him it must be assumed a welcome deviation from the organ/sax/guitar-format.

Whereas in When Johnny Comes Marching Home Patterson doesn’t stray far from the methods of Jimmy Smith (who recorded the traditional tune on Crazy Baby in 1960) – in renaissance terminology Patterson surpasses imitatio and comes close to aemulatio – Patterson original S’Bout Time is a whole different ballgame. By far the album’s greatest achievement, (eclipsing the rendition of Sonny Rollins’ Oleo, itself a fine performance that receives meticulous attention to its tricky theme and a fair dose of fast-fingered bop-blues riffs from Patterson and tenorist Booker Ervin, and Up In Betty’s Room, a lively blues composition containing some freewheeling improvisation as well as a too distorted B3 sound near the end) S’Bout Time stretches the boundaries of soul jazz by way of a modal “feel” reminiscent of the work of contemporaries such as Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock. Horn and piano players, yes, since theirs is the broad-minded approach Patterson felt comfortable with and challenged by.

A sassy build-up from drummer Billy James and Patterson’s “walkin” bass lines is followed by a simple melody that is somewhat in the vein of (a speeded-up) So What, from whence Booker Ervin takes off. And I do mean take off! Ervin, an astute contributor to many of Charles Mingus’ finest recordings, is fiery all the way, splendid in his combination of blues and the depth of Coltrane. Patterson’s answer to Ervin’s spontaneous combustion is dynamic, coherent, unashamedly freeflowing. With only two chord changes to play with, and no percussive guitar obstacles, Patterson really stretches out, leaving smart spaces, playfully running up and down the scale and veering from robust behind-the-beat-accents to delicate, suave bopeology. Patterson uses his right hand almost exclusively and the effect is mesmerizing. After four and a half minutes of classy soloing, Ervin re-enters for a few heated bars and the trio trades fours down to the coda.

It’s a powerful statement from a refreshing record of organ jazz.

YouTube: ‘S Bout Time

Don Patterson Tune Up! (Prestige 1964/1969)

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Tune Up! is one more example of a record company’s policy to keep an interest in the career of a musician when he or she is absent with no apparent return ticket attached; in this case Don Patterson, whose hard road of drug abuse at the end of the sixties had become strewn thick with heavy rocks and barbed wire.

Don Patterson - Tune Up!

Personnel

Don Patterson (organ), Booker Ervin (tenor saxophone A1-2), Sonny Stitt (tenor saxophone A2, B1), Houston Personn (tenor saxophone B2), George Coleman (tenor saxophone B2), Virgil Jones (trumpet B2), Grant Green (guitar B1), Billy James (drums A1-2, B1), Frankie Jones (B2)

Recorded

Recorded on July 10 & August 25, 1964 and June 2 & September 15, 1969 at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Released

as PR 7852 in 1969

Track listing

Side A:
Just Friends
Flying Home
Side B:
Tune Up
Blues For Mom


It didn’t affect his playing on the title track, this album’s most interesting cut, a leftover from a September ’69 session that spawned two high-standard releases – Brothers 4 and Donnybrook. It would be hard to follow up Grant Green’s amazing solo on Miles Davis’ fast-paced composition – Green (credited as Blue Grant) showing no loss of remarkable straight jazz skills during his burgeoning funk jazz period – were it not that Don Patterson rises to the occasion, not tempted to flex his muscles in bragadocious manner, but instead stringing one dynamic, coolly delivered bop run to another, like multiple toy beads.

It’s difficult to make head or tail out of an album that presents four tunes from four different sessions, ranging from ‘64 to ’69. This nevertheless belies the good quality of these sessions, what with the standing of Patterson and sidemen such as Stitt, Ervin, Coleman and Jones, who confidently blow their way through standards and blues.

YouTube: Tune Up

Don Patterson Satisfaction (Prestige 1965)

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Don Patterson operated within the classic organ combo format – a quartet consisting of organ, guitar, drums and saxophone. On Satisfaction the horn is left out. It’s not sorely missed. Patterson keeps things interesting in many areas: that of technical ability, harmonic coherence and, last but not least, that of the blues.

R-2167780-1365804281-9008.jpeg

Personnel

Don Patterson (organ), Jerry Byrd (guitar), Billy James (drums)

Recorded

on July 19, 1965 at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Released

as PR 7430

Track listing

Side A:
Bowl Full Of Yok
Goin’ To Meeting
Side B:
John Brown’s Body
Satisfaction
Walkin’


Patterson had been working with drummer Billy James for four years, notably as backing group for Sonny Stitt. They don’t dwell on matters and head into two uptempo blues shuffles, Bowl Full Of Yok and Goin’ To Meeting, commenting on each other’s phrases ebulliently. Patterson is a great storyteller and capable of stretching out to the limit. Bowl Full Of Yok’s many choruses never have a dull moment. After the theme is stated guitarist Jerry Byrd immediately grabs attention in dissonant vein and launches into a solid solo. Byrd flavors his personal style with touches of Charlie Christian and Pat Martino. In this session Byrd takes some interesting solo’s; his guitar sound is a bit distorted, which enlivens the down home-type proceedings.

Jagger/Richard’s Satisfaction has gotten a lighthearted, funky treatment. On John Brown’s Body – a marching song about an abolitionist in the American Civil War – the resemblance of Patterson’s play to the famous character that influenced him to take up the organ in the first place, Jimmy Smith, is most striking.

At the time, liner note writers more often than not referred to the schism that existed between stuffed shirts who detested the organ genre (and its popularity!) and aficionados that defended it as a worthy addition to the art of jazz. Bob Porter, who wrote on the back of Satisfaction’s sleeve, is no exception. The battle may seem absurd nowadays, as generally people finally got hip to it; I’m on the side of, as one might have expected, Bob Porter & Co. Naturally, it would be hard to deny that there have been more than enough mediocre organ sessions between 1955 and 1975. But Patterson didn’t partake in any of them; and Satisfaction is but one example that the jazz of the Hammond B3 could simultanously be entertaining, smart, soulful and inventive.

YouTube: Goin’ To Meetin’

Sonny Stitt Night Crawler (Prestige 1965)

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The discography of Sonny Stitt is so vast, it’s bound to include some average affairs. Night Crawler is one of them. It, like much of Stitt’s organ combo work from the sixties, doesn’t possess the brilliance of his bop playing in the fifties or career-defining early seventies work, but sets a good groove. Stitt’s playing, however, isn’t very spirited.

Sonny Stitt - Night Crawler

Personnel

Sonny Stitt (alto & tenor saxophone), Don Patterson (organ), Billy James (drums)

Recorded

on September 21, 1965 at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Released

as PR 7436

Track listing

Side A:
All God’s Children Got Rhythm
Answering Service
Tangerine
Side B:
Night Crawler
Who Can I Turn To?


For a big part, Night Crawler relies on the classic AABA-song structure. Stitt also returns to the well-worn warhorse All God’s Children Got Rhythm. Although not really on fire, Stitt’s beautiful execution nevertheless is a thing to be treasured.

Stitt’s delivery on alto is ultra-clean and bop’s signature techniques such as double timing and the trading of fast fours are played in a seemingly effortless manner. Night Crawler being the one funky blues, it’s not surprisingly chosen as album title. It’s just one of six tracks on which organist Don Patterson displays a wonderful sense of restraint. Night Crawler is part of a series of albums in which this trio cooperates. (e.g. Low Flame, Soul People and Don Patterson’s Funk You) They also were a working band. It explains their smooth interplay.