Taking me back

I discovered jazz through ABC’s Music to Midnight. I think Ian Neal was then presenter. Dizzy was a favourite but I also remember the swinging, mainstream organ trio sound of Jimmy Smith. Darren Heinrich’s trio gig last night at the Loft was just like that.

There aren’t too many organ players of this style in today’s jazz. Someone asked Darren after the gig and he only gave about 5 or 6 names across Melbourne and Sydney. There may be others, but suffice there are fewer organists than guitarists. The sound is deliciously mainstream rather than challengingly modern. It’s heavy on chords and swing, and although the solos go dissonant they still adhere to the moving harmonic structure pretty closely. It’s a delightful, joyful style that had me tapping my feet on the 2-4 and revelling in the velvet sound of the Hammond/Leslie. It was fascinating to watch Darren working away, and he was busy with two manuals, the foot keys, the volume pedal and Leslie control. There are so many unique sounds here. The foot pedals are seriously deep. They are also percussive and virtually pitchfree when played as short notes, and Darren sometimes used them to accentuate walking bass lines by the left hand. I also noticed a delicious bounciness to quickly played runs that mimicked the slow opening and closing of valves on a mechanical pipe organ. Then there are the tricks you can do with volume pedal, growing notes then stopping then suddenly by lifting fingers off keys. Pianos can’t do that sort of dynamics. Then an odd technique that he showed us after the gig: playing like block chords, but essentially just playing strong octaves with whatever other notes are under the hands. It seems the notes are undefined enough to allow some chord faking. (This may be secret organists’ business). Suffice to say, I loved the sound, and Darren played wonderfully aptly, with blocky chords and walking bass and funky grooves and Monk whimsy and calls/responses and floating ballads and even the period sound of theatre organs. Steve and Ross fitted the part nicely too. Ross with hard swinging drums from the start, plenty of swapped fours and at least one solo against an ostinato. The hard swing is one aspect of this mainstream style. I didn’t notice a lot of group dynamics until later in the night, but then organs are essentially a sustained sound so this is in character. But I loved the steady time sense. Despite lively solos and excitable grooves, the tempo was never rushed. This was a big factor in keeping that open and relaxed feel. Steve ran the chords with a woody, choppy, unsustained guitar tone. He played a good bit of dissonance and you could always follow the underlying chords but there were some long, fast and extravagant lines too.

It was all so relaxed and entertaining. But that theatre organ? That truly is time travel. Darren Heinrich (organ) was the time lord leading his jazz organ trio with Steve Brien (guitar) and Ross Ferraro (drums).

Cyberhalides Jazz Photos by Brian Stewart