Organ trio facts for kids

The Medeski, Martin and Wood organ trio demonstrates that an organ trio can come in different varieties; in place of a sax or electric guitarist, this band has an upright bass player as the third member.

An organ trio is a type of jazz band with three musicians. Usually a jazz organ trio consists of a Hammond organ player, a drummer, and either a jazz guitarist or a saxophone player.

Organ trios popular in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. Organ trios usually performed jazz music that had influences from blues music. Organ trios are usually led by the organ player, who is called the leader of the trio.

History

Important organ trio leaders from the 1950s were organists such as Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Smith, and Jack McDuff. In the late 1960s, organist Larry Young had a jazz fusion style organ trio. In the 1970s, Tony Williams had a jazz fusion band called Lifetime which was an organ trio. In the 1990s and 2000s, organist Joey DeFrancesco is an organ trio leader.

Images for kids

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  Jazz organist Jimmy Smith at a show in Italy in 1994; the sax and drumkit of the other trio members can be seen in this picture.

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  Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto 1978

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  Jazz organist Joey Defrancesco, pictured here in 2002, has recorded albums that recapture the "old school" organ trio sound of the 1960s.