By Chris M. Slawecki
Jimmy McGriff has been a fixture on the Jazz landscape, it seems, as long as there have been automobiles cruising American highways.
Putting on a record by Jimmy McGriff is a lot like turning over the engine of a fine luxury car. You look forward to its smooth yet powerful performance. You know youll ease into and out of corners, no matter how angular. You relish the silky glide when you settle into cruise control, and the raw power unleashed when you throw that throttle wide open. When its time for a long-distance, marathon jam, theres nothing quite like cruising down the open road, riding the rails of a cool Jazz organ Blues.
And in the showroom of Jazz organ players, Jimmy McGriff is one of the top of the line Cadillacs.
McGriff has been surrounded by music specifically, organ music ever since his birth in Philadelphia, 1936. He plays a prominent part in the swell of homegrown Philly Blues, soul, Jazz, Gospel organ players that also includes Jimmy Smith (born just west of the city in Norristown, PA) and Richard "Groove" Holmes (from right across the Schuylkill River in Camden, NJ). McGriffs first hit record was his 1962 moanin blue version of Ray Charles "I Got A Woman." Its sound, mixing Gospel and Blues moods and modes into Jazz arrangements and solos, offers a model of McGriffs approach. Through the subsequent decades, he has recorded extensively for Blue Note, Groove Merchant, Capitol, and other stalwart Jazz imprints. Fantasy Records publicity pens McGriff "somewhere between the Jazz of Jimmy Smith and the R&B of Booker T. & The MGs" which is pretty accurate, and a damn fine place for an organ player to be.
Fantasys website features a section where artists on their roster list their favorite albums from the labels catalog. McGriff counts among his favorites Soul Survivors, his first album with saxophonist Hank Crawford, and his own releases The Starting Five and Blue To The Bone. "All my favorite sidemen are on these two," he says of such monsters of rock as Melvin Sparks, David "Fathead" Newman, Rusty Bryant and the original funky drummer, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. "It sure felt good to work with all of them!"
McGriffs current release aint nothing but a party McGriffs House Party. His 12th album for Milestone features his longtime rhythm ace Purdie, guitarist Rodney Jones, Kenny Rampton on trumpet, saxophonists Bill Easley and Eric Alexander, plus special guest Dr. Lonnie Smith on complementary organ for four tracks. McGriff is ably abetted by guitarist Jones on this casually hard-rockin affair; Jones contributes the title track, the opening "Neckbones a la Carte" and "Grits, Gravy and Groove" (both of which are as funky and greasy as they sound). Speaking of guitarists, George Benson dropped by the studio during the Party sessions and was so knocked out by the getting down sounds that he left the studio, returned the next day and presented the band with "Red Cadillac Boogaloo." Smiths long, slow-riding Blues "Dishin The Dirt" brings this set down for a smooth landing.
Though discussed most often as a Jazz organ player, Blues and Gospel are just as important to appreciating McGriffs subtle sound. He released a pair of Blues sessions as co-leader with Blues vocalist and harmonica player Junior Parker, and was a featured participant on the Grammy-winning Gospel release Trumaine Hawkins Live (1990), upon which Stanley Turrentine, Carlos Santana, and Edwin Hawkins also appear. The time Jimmy McGriff spent in worship at Eastern Star Baptist Church seems to have left its impression. "They talk about who taught me this and who taught me that, but the basic idea of what Im doing on the organ came from the church," he offers. "Thats how I got it, and I just never dropped it."
Q:Nearly every piece of biography or press information about you prominently mentions the influence of the church. How has the church influenced your music?
JMcG: Where I was raised up was next door to a church. I got to know some of the people who were going there, and the guy that was playing organ I got to know pretty good. Thats really where it started at. Today when I play, I play with
anything I play, its a Gospel touch there. This is what gives me my own sound. And I think thats what really did it. My whole life was surrounded by that.
Q:How has the church influenced you other than the way it influenced your music?
JMcG: Believe it or not, when I was a kid it taught me what was right, what was wrong. Do not hate, that was wrong.
Q:How can we hear in your music the sound of you growing up in the 30s and 40s in Philadelphia?
JMcG: Its
its
I cant explain it to you. But if you hear the music, you will hear the Gospel part of it coming out of that. This was something that I was raised with.
Q:Was Newark a really happening Jazz town in the late 40s, 50s and early 60s?
JMcG: Yep. To make New York, if you wanted to play New York, youd have to come through Philly, through Trenton, through Newark, then youll go into New York. So that was a steppingstone.
Q:What was your favorite music to listen to when you were a teenager?
JMcG: Gospel. And he wasnt a Gospel player, but I listened to Groove Holmes.
Q:Whats the most important way that an organ player thinks differently from a piano player?
JMcG: The organ and the piano are two different feels. I mean, to play them. Youd have to feel it, because you get a different feeling playing piano I do, anyway than playing organ. Its always that church thing is there, all the time.
Q:Have you heard any piano players who can approximate that church thing on piano can you do it?
JMcG: Yeah. Ray Charles does it very good. Well, hes out of that church, too. And Les McCann, you can hear it. He has that Gospel feelin. They ALL have that, you know. Its a basic start-off for piano players or organ players, it gives you that real insight on what to play and how you should go about it.
Q:If you had to put your finger on it, what makes Bernard "Pretty" Purdie so damn funky?
JMcG: Hes out of the church.
Q:What about Hank Crawford why does his style seem to play so well with yours?
JMcG: Hes out of the church. Hank plays the horn the way that a choir would sing. I play the organ the way the choir voices would sound. Thats about the best that I can give you on that.
Q:What was your overall impression of your first recording experience with Eric Alexander?
JMcG: If you ever heard a choir singing, and you heard one person sing in that high voice that would be Erics voicing.
Q:Who do you consider the modern organ greats?
JMcG: Shirley Scott. Jimmy Smith is one of the top. Theres a girl in Philly named Trudy Pitts, she is one of the tops, too. But they dont really recognize her, they pick Shirley Scott over her.
Q:Do you ever think that maybe you get lost in the shuffle with the other Jazz organ greats?
JMcG: By me coming out of Philly, that organ sound
if you hear most of the organ players come from Philly, and its just a sound. All I can say is that its the Philadelphia sound. Most organ players who are really not even from Philly have that Philly sound.
Q:Whats the thing youll remember most from the House Party sessions?
JMcG: Its just what it says House Party. It makes me think of growing up and they had the house parties. You would hear that kind of music coming out. It was older guys playing, though, but it was there.
Q:Is there a particular moment or song on House Party where you just kick back and think to yourself, "Damn, really nailed that one"?
JMcG: Not really. Once I cut a record and listen back to it, I think different from the way people hear it. I think of what I could have done and didnt do. And later on life, if I record another one similar to that, can I have the things that I think I missed? Which I believe I can.
Q:Doesnt that mean that you enjoy a record less after you put it out?
JMcG: Yeah, you could say that. Cause once you cut a record, its done. And you cant re-cut it again. I mean, you could, but
the record company wont let you do that. So youre stuck with whatever you play.
Q:What has been the secret to your longevity?
JMcG: Its like I say: I believe in the Lord above. And whenever Im thinking of something, I think of Him too. And whenever I cut a record or go play a job, I always say, "Help me get through this." And it seems like Hes always there to say, "Well, come on!" Thats my influence.
Q:Do you consider yourself more of a spiritual person or a religious person, or isnt there any difference between the two?
JMcG: Theres a difference because I was raised spiritually. But what happens is, when I play with another guy that I never played with before, Ill play a little. If youve heard a Gospel group singing and listened to the organ, youll hear that Gospel group there. And thats like the opening to, "OK, lets go lets play!" Most musicians can lead into something, or lead you away from it. So my mind keeps me going toward that Gospel, and thats been the track for me.
Q:Have you ever thought about doing a record with a singer?
JMcG: I have done a thing with a Gospel group, and it wasnt pushed the way that I figured it should have been pushed. You know, its just a record and they just came out with it. Ive played with a lot of singers like Nancy Wilson, Ive worked with her.
Q:Do you have a favorite singer?
JMcG: Yeah, Aretha Franklin. From the church.
Q:Who is the best Blues guitar player you ever heard?
JMcG: To me? Kenny Burrell.
Q:What do you like to do when youre not playing music?
JMcG: I like to read. And I work with young kids that are trying to start playing. I do some of that. I cant really get around and do a lot of that like I would like to. The health thing wont let me do it.
Q:Are you going to be touring in support of House Party? You mention the health issue, and
JMcG: Yeah, I dont think Im going to be doing too much traveling. I have MS.
Q: We were not aware of that.
JMcG: Yeah, nobody is.
Q:We can not mention that in the interview if you would prefer to take it out.
JMcG: When people see me on stage now, the way I walk, they know somethings wrong. So I dont care, you know? Its something that happens. It happens in life. Im no different from anybody else. But Im living with it.
Q:What would be the five records you would take with you into heaven?
JMcG: Erroll Garner, for one, was a favorite of mine. Ray Charles. Aretha Franklin. And Patti LaBelle.
Q:Did you ever play with Patti in Philly?
JMcG: No, but see, my uncle, hes dead now, he raised Patti when it was Patti and The Bluebelles. Sonny Riley. If you ever talk to her, ask her if she knows somebody by that name. Shell laugh at you and say, "Oh yeah!" Shes out of the church, too.
Q:Philly has such a reputation for being so hard on its professional athletes. Do you think its a little rougher on its hometown musicians, too?
JMcG: Ill tell you the real truth. Philadelphia, to me, did not respect me until I made that first hit record. Then they started recognizing me. All the Philadelphia musicians were like that. Philadelphia is a hard town for them to recognize anybody in any kind of field sports, music, anything.
