Another day, another Hammond organ album to plough
through. This one though hails from Britain rather than the Continent. Not that
it makes much difference to the format - this another set of random songs ('It's
A Sin To Tell A Lie', 'On Mother Kelly's Doorstep', 'For All We Know', 'The
Breeze And I' etc.) played as instrumentals medleys on a Hammond organ. Plus ca
change then. What's slightly different is that the music on this is played by
what's apparently a jazz trio of sorts with Hodgson's organ joined by bass and
drums. It could have been interesting, but what this amounts to in practice is a
bassist playing scales in whatever key the organ is in and a drummer liable to
break ranks from keeping straight time to pull off some outrageous Buddy Rich
type drum fills and rolls before reverting back to keeping the beat again,
presumably after Hodgson shoots him an evil look to remind him who's the star
here.
If all this makes it sounds like an interesting listen, then I'm afraid I'm here to tell you that it isn't. Regardless of what the rhythm section are up to, it's the organ that dominates the landscape the way a spider dominates a fly - i.e. by sucking all the life out of it. Hodgson punches out the tunes by functional rote with nothing in the way of any flourish, flash or originality and it levels the music until it simply sounds like three mates jamming in the front room on a wet Sunday afternoon. I've no doubt that the three of them were thoroughly enjoying themselves in playing this stuff, but to then record it, press it onto vinyl and expect others to enjoy it enough themselves to buy it is perhaps a step too far, making it more akin to your boring neighbours calling round with a big box of holiday snaps when all you want is a quiet night in front of the telly. The back cover tells us that Hodgson 'is now much in demand as the demonstrator of Hammond organs par excellence at Chappell's famed Music Centre in London's Bond Street'. On the strength of this, he's probably still there.
If all this makes it sounds like an interesting listen, then I'm afraid I'm here to tell you that it isn't. Regardless of what the rhythm section are up to, it's the organ that dominates the landscape the way a spider dominates a fly - i.e. by sucking all the life out of it. Hodgson punches out the tunes by functional rote with nothing in the way of any flourish, flash or originality and it levels the music until it simply sounds like three mates jamming in the front room on a wet Sunday afternoon. I've no doubt that the three of them were thoroughly enjoying themselves in playing this stuff, but to then record it, press it onto vinyl and expect others to enjoy it enough themselves to buy it is perhaps a step too far, making it more akin to your boring neighbours calling round with a big box of holiday snaps when all you want is a quiet night in front of the telly. The back cover tells us that Hodgson 'is now much in demand as the demonstrator of Hammond organs par excellence at Chappell's famed Music Centre in London's Bond Street'. On the strength of this, he's probably still there.
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