Re: Billy Preston (was: Late Nite)

[Ben Ninmann <BenWaB3@cpcnet.com>]

>Billy doesn't get mentioned all that much in KB discussions.  Too bad.  
>He's a brilliant pianist and organist ... way up on top of my list.
>
>Pete

Hey Pete, you've got a great knack for bringing up some of the
underappreciated organists for discussion.

If anybody defines soul/gospel/blues in organ playing, it has to be Billy
Preston. He won't kill you with a lot of burnin' licks, but everything he
plays is dripping w/ soul. You can definitely hear the church in his
playing. In addition to his commercial alums he did put out a few Gospel
ones too. He also made many valuable contributions as a sideman. We've
previously discussed his playing on the great `Aretha Franklin - Live at the
Fillmore' album (& cd also). Harder to find but definitely worth checking
out is `King Curtis - Live at the Fillmore'. Actually King & the band was on
the Aretha session. He played the first set(s) w/ the complete line-up minus
Aretha & the Sweet Inspirations. They do a great live version of Memphis
Soul Stew. As far as I know you have to hunt down the (out of print) album
for this session. If anyone has info. on a cd release of this, please post
it to the board. Anyway, back to the subject. Billy also did some great work
backing up Ray Charles. He was probably still in his teens when he played
organ on the Crying Time album (again, if anyone has any info on a cd issue
of this one, please post it). His Hammond work adds the proper amount of
voltage to some already electrifying performances by Ray. Even if you can
only run across a used copy of the album this one is a great lesson on
Hammond playing in itself. Changing drawbar settings, Leslie speeds & the
fine art of comping behind the singer are demonstrated to perfection on this
one. He demonstrates the art of legato soloing w/ flourishes on a song
called "No Use Cryin". About as much as I can figure out that registration,
it was 003780008 - fast Leslie. Again if anyone can further fine tune it,
please post. He also was on Ray's soundtrack recording of "In the Heat of
the Night". He also did some fine gospelly playing on Ray's version of
"America the Beautiful", which was really great until the 2nd. verse when
all those sappy, syrupy strings came in & ruined the whole thing (one
downfall of too many Ray Charles recordings, unfortunately). I got a chance
to see Billy here in Lancaster, PA a few years ago. I figured it would be
too much to hope for to see him w/ a Hammond & accoustic piano. That
premonition was right when he came out & played the whole show on a
DX-7?!?!?! Even one of whatever generation of Korg was available would have
gotten him a closer organ or piano sound. He was actually a bandleader on
one of the failed late night talk shows of a couple of years ago. It would
have been nice to see the show suceed just to have a chance to watch Billy
every night. Anyway, thanks again Pete for reminding us of one of our
lesser-sung Hammond heroes.

Ben Ninmann