Jazz Articles about Wil Blades
About Wil Blades
Instrument: Organ, Hammond B3
Article Coverage | Calendar | Albums | Photos | Similar ArtistsWil Blades: Field Notes
by Chris M. Slawecki
It's good to know that no matter how many things change around us, there's still nothing that kicks out the jams like a good old school B-3 organ, guitar and drum trio. Wil Blades provides an excellent case study in groove. Throughout the past fifteen years, this B-3 bombardier has worked with blues and jazz greats both old school and new, such as Joe Louis Walker, Idris Muhammad, Melvin Sparks, Karl Denson, Billy Martin (Medeski Martin & Wood), ...
read moreWil Blades: Groooooovin'
by R.J. DeLuke
"I love the blues," says Wil Blades, a Hammond B3 whiz who didn't come to the instrument until he left his hometown of jny: Chicago and was going to college in California. He doesn't remember specific instances of being struck by a blues thunderbolt, but “I remember hearing it. It's part of the feeling I get when I play music." He started on drums at a young age and turned to guitar as a teenager--"I had those rock ...
read moreWil Blades: Field Notes
by Doug Collette
Keyboardist Wil Blades earned his pedigree playing with guitarist Will Bernard and percussionist Billy Martin and now ratchets up his leadership skills fronting a trio including guitarist Jeff Parker and drummer Simon Lott. Concentrating on Hammond B3 organ (using clavinet to leaven the textured sound of the group), Blades proves he has absorbed the lessons from masters of the hallowed instrument such as Jimmy Smith and happily carries them into the future. He the alternately fluid but funky ...
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