organissimo

CD Title: This Is The Place

Year: 2005

Record Label: Big O Records

Style: Various Jazz Styles

Musicians: Jim Alfredson: Hammond B-3, Joe Gloss: guitar, Randy Marsh: drums & harmonica (track 3). Special guests: Johnny Gist tenor saxophone (track 5), Bill Vits: percussion (tracks 2 & 7)

Review: This Is The Place debuted near the top of the charts. Showing astounding musicianship, these master musicians are celebrating their second successful album. Their first, Waiting For The Boogaloo Sisters was an award winner with this trio's signature sound.

Still expanding their expertise, the group has drawn attention from disc jockeys and listeners across the country, with good reason. With eight original tunes plus Frank Zappa's "Peaches En Regalia" and the classic, "Tenderly," Organissimo takes listeners through complicated twists and turns with an all out display of talents on B-3, funky guitar fretting and ferocious percussion.

Percussion driven, "Wealthy Street" begins the album with nine full minutes of extreme, suspenseful, organic grooves, developing into a magnificent full organ experience.

Getting funky with "Greeze Monkey," the organ expands even more as Vitts breaks in with an astonishing percussive beat. Joe Gloss makes his guitar speak. Following with "Brother Ray," Randy Marsh hits heavy on harmonica--just as it should be for this soulful tune. Sharp interplay between organ and harmonica keep this a head noddin' -- toe tappin' heartfelt blues inspired blend deserving of the notoriety it has drawn across from the country.

"Smoking Section" is highlighted with Gloss' guitar, backed by Alfredson on the B-3. Gloss is definitely no stranger to variety as he walks his strings through fretful indulgence. Again, Alfredson shows mighty finger rolls on "Stomp Yo' Feets" while Gist takes the opportunity to blow hearty, staying in front until Gloss cuts in on guitar with his frenetic finger work.

A softer, gentler approach is taken with "Intro."

Bringing their audience to a completely different place with "Tenderly," the B-3 softens, mellows and moves gently, accompanied by a smooth percussion. Gloss lets his fingers gently carve out each note in a rich display of musicianship. This is another full nine minutes of pure pleasure. No, it doesn't get dull...each note is eagerly anticipated.

Organic riffs and full stretches on keyboard lead "Play Nice," which this group is doing already. Many textures. Lots of melody. Plenty of surprises. Turning to an honoring rendition of Frank Zappa's anthem, "Peaches En Regalia," the group shows no mercy as they knock out the toughest of tones, beginning with an organ call to listen-up.

Bringing the group home, "Pumpkin Pie," begins tenderly enough with organ walks. Gloss soon begins his cruise through the strings, adding rich tones, while the percussion keeps an even beat.

This may be the group's second award-winning album but it definitely won't be the last one. These fellows have what it takes and they know how to use it to draw listeners and to keep them.

Record Label Website: http://www.big-o-records.com

Artist's Website: http://www.organissimo.org

Reviewed by: Nina Goodrich

- JazzReview.com

Jamming with aliens...

by Charles L. Latimer
3/8/2006

Organist Jim Alfredson and guitarist Joe Gloss first crossed paths back in 1997, and it was rapport at first note. But it took another three years of genre shifting and lineup changing for their group, Lansing-based organissimo, to shape its unique sound.

Alfredson joined Gloss' old fusion outfit, Semi-Gloss, which then went through a number of names and drummers until a friend hooked them up with Grand Rapids drummer Randy Marsh. Marsh had more than a little experience in the organ trio format. Two decades older than then-twentysomethings Alfredson and Gloss, he'd played with organ titans Jimmy McGriff, Shirley Scott and Lyman Woodard, not to mention with former Basie sax man Jimmy Forrest. And he was a second-generation jazzman to boot. His dad had played with Stan Kenton and Quincy Jones; his mom was a jazz singer.

"He came over and played a blues, and from the first downbeat, Joe and I looked at each other knowing that this was the guy," Alfredson says of that first meeting. For his part, Marsh recalls that 14 tunes later he knew "those guys aren't from Planet Earth. It seemed like they came here on a UFO and was dropped off."

And that's how Marsh joined forces with the aliens. He disbanded his old trio in Grand Rapids, and a new one was born. They started playing out of the traditional organ trio songbook, but they've graduated from old-school to something else, a perfect blend of funk, jazz, rock and soul. Since Alfredson and Gloss come from musical backgrounds that range from rock to bluegrass, maybe it's not surprising that their group is trying to find its own way. The standard repertoire has been largely replaced by a bonanza of up-tempo originals with titles like "Jimmy Smith Goes to Washington" and "Stomp Yo' Feets," though their take on Frank Zappa's "Peaches en Regalia" says more than a little about their sensibility as well.

The tunes are collaborative concoctions, the guys say. Where Marsh hears his younger bandmates as otherworldly, they think of him in sci-fi terms as well.

"Randy is the mad scientist of the group, he's back there mixing up this big pot of stuff," says Alfredson. "Joe and I tend to write the main part of the compositions — the melody and the chord structure — and Randy will come in and add some strange rhythmic element."

Perhaps most important, though, is the way these parts mesh. Marsh is volcanic; Gloss spins out silky melodic lines on guitar that are reminiscent of John Scofield and Pat Metheny; Alfredson weaves an exquisite fabric of chords. And they bring these sounds together as if communicating through some sonic ESP.

Besides finding a sound, they're also finding an audience. Their self-produced records — Waiting for the Boogaloo Sisters and This is the Place on their Big O label — have garnered good reviews in places like Cadence magazine and done well on the CMJ chart and others — "up there with Pat Metheny and Bill Frisell and Ron Blake," says Alfredson with pride.

They hit the road often to tour the Midwest and Eastern states. Last December, when they pulled into Chicago's famed Hot House, Chicago Tribune 's esteemed jazz critic Howard Reich noted that Alfredson's organ playing builds on the harmonies and colors of the great Jimmy Smith "while avoiding comparisons to the master's brilliant technique."

Reich continued: "Alfredson and organissimo ... draw an audience's attention with the vivid character of their compositions and the unerring precision of their ensemble playing, not the flash and bravura of the leader's keyboard work." At the top of their game, Reich said, "the listener nearly forgets that three distinct voices are at play."

Those three voices have also found a toehold in Detroit with stops at Baker's Keyboard every couple months, including a stop in October to record what is to be their next Big O release.

They'd like fame and a big label deal, but for now they're just three guys who love making music together, looking for the respect of their peers, appreciative of the niche and the audience they've found.

Saturday, March 11, Baker's Keyboard Lounge, 20510 Livernois Ave., Detroit; 313-345-6300; bakerskeyboardlounge.com .






- Detroit Metro Times

Organissimo - This is the Place
Big O Records

Healthy grease for the soul

Organissimo - This is the Place - Big O Records - #2404 2005, 63:57
(Jim Alfredson - Hammond B-3 organ; Joe Gloss - guitar; Randy Marsh - drums)

Organissimo, a Hammond B-3 trio from Michigan, has the grease quotient down! For Hammond B-3 lovers, "grease" is a key ingredient in the organ-guitar-drums format. You've got the Hammond layin' down the groove, with the guitarist stirring the pot, and the drummer propelling the mix. Jimmy Smith largely set the standard in the 1950s for the Hammond B-3, followed by Jimmy McGriff, Jack McDuff, Charles Earland, Big John Patton, and Lonnie Smith to just name a few, and continuing on to today's groovesters such as Joey DeFrancesco, Tony Monaco, and Larry Goldings.

The key ingredient for Hammond aficionados is the "grease." It's the head nodding, booty-shaking soul, hard to define in musical terms, but you know it when you hear it. Organissimo's This is the Place has the feel and the soul of an inner city late night jazz/blues club, where the regulars are winding down from their work week, some green in their pocket and ready to party. Song titles such as Greaze Monkey, Brother Ray, and Stomp Yo' Feets tell it all. Playing virtually all original compositions by the band members, this band is time-tested and ready to spread their wings beyond the Midwest. They've already hit the Windy City playing at the Green Mill and had a gig at Detroit's famous Baker's Keyboard Lounge, so you know they are ready for the road!

An extra treat on their CD is found on Brother Ray with Randy Marsh's harp playing, and on Stomp Yo Feets with guest tenor sax player, Johnny Gist. Other song favorites on the CD for me were Tenderly and Play Nice. Pick up this CD - now available on amazon.com - and you'll have enough grease to cook dinner, lube your rig, and slick back your 'do for when Organissimo hits your town.

Song Titles: Wealthy Street, Greaze Monkey, Brother Ray, Smoking Section, Stomp Yo' Feets, Intro, Tenderly, Play Nice, Peaches En Regalia, Pumpkin Pie

- Jeff Krow - Audiophile Audition

By Howard Reich
Tribune arts critic


One way or another, every jazz organist must come to terms with the legacy of Jimmy Smith, who died in February at age 79 but remains the measure by which his successors are judged.

Some, such as the formidable Joey DeFrancesco, aspire to comparable levels of virtuosity and often attain it.

Others, such as Jim Alfredson, who anchors a Michigan-based trio called organissimo, build on Smith's breakthroughs in harmony and color while avoiding comparisons to the master's brilliant technique.

Alfredson and organissimo, in other words, draw an audience's attention with the vivid character of their compositions and the unerring precision of their ensemble playing, not the flash and bravura of the leader's keyboard work. Because Alfredson and his colleagues share a less-is-more musical philosophy, they can be remarkably effective as a unit, as was the case Wednesday night at HotHouse.

When Alfredson, guitarist Joe Gloss and drummer Randy Marsh are in top form, the listener nearly forgets that three distinct voices are at play.

As Alfredson pumps swelling chords, Marsh produces sharply staccato backbeats and Gloss articulates sleekly crafted melody lines. Even during solos, the musicians assist each other with uncommon sensitivity, a space in an Alfredson cadenza punctuated with a quick combination from Marsh's drum kit.

That's not to say, however, that Alfredson can't get around the keys of his Hammond B-3 organ. His right-hand work, in particular, offers ample fluidity, yet even his fast-flying passagework is more impressive for its melodic ingenuity than its speed or technical prowess.

Combine Alfredson's knack for choosing just the right color and tone in any given composition with his colleagues' ability to match his gestures, and you have one of the most promising organ trios in jazz.

Though an original tune such as "Stomp Yo' Feets" easily might have emerged as a caricature of New Orleans street beats, it transcended that cliché thanks to Marsh's ultra-economical rhythms and Alfredson's inventive solos. Drawing upon a broad vocabulary of keyboard devices—from two-handed glissandos to telegraphic chords to buoyant wah-wah effects—Alfredson proved as entertaining as the Crescent City musicians the tune saluted.

The band's best work came in "Mellow Mood," which Smith and Wes Montgomery famously recorded in the mid-1960s. Creating the darkest timbres, subtlest voicings and most insinuating phrases of the evening, organissimo lived up to the tune's name.

If the band was less creative in the standard "Tenderly," if drummer Marsh played harmonica to minimal effect, these moments were the exceptions in an otherwise beguiling show.
- Chicago Tribune

Published November 2005

This is the Place is the second album from Lansing, MI based organissimo. It's a standard organ trio format of organ, guitar and drums, but what they're willing to do with it is hardly standard fare.

It starts off on an interesting note. While this band is more than willing to play funk like any organ trio should, it's willing to do it quietly, sneakily getting feet to start tapping instead of hitting you over the head with one chord vamps meant strictly for the dance floor. It's also willing to switch gears fairly regularly, keeping the listener engaged with dynamic shifts, subtle tempo changes and interesting harmonic ideas thrown into the stew as well.

What that all amounts to is an organ trio that refuses to play by the rules. While the influences are all worn right on the sleeve, with Jimmy Smith's wails, Don Patterson's comping and Jack McDuff's penchant for funk coming through loud and clear, they're mixed up enough to keep the customer coming back for more.

This is the Place rewards subsequent listens with tight originals, smart choices in cover material and even an excellent harmonica solo by drummer Randy Marsh on a tribute to the late Ray Charles, Brother Ray.

organissimo is starting to make inroads in Chicago, having just played Martyr's and they're coming back to the HotHouse in November. Sitting somewhere inbetween the rollicking and sweaty swing of Jimmy Smith and the bare-bones funk of Medeski Martin and Wood, these guys have a little something to offer all fans of organ jazz. This is the Place is where it's at.

-- Paul Abella


- Chicago Jazz Magazine

Last Sunday night, Jim Alfredson, the composer/organist brain behind the national-chart-topping trio Organissimo, threw a party for a few dozen friends at his home in Lansing.

The trio's upcoming holiday gig Sunday, Dec. 14, at The Small Planet caps a landmark year for Alfredson and his bandmates, guitarist Joe Gloss and drummer Randy Marsh.

Sunday's party, too, had a victory-lap flavor.

After some mingling, Alfredson escaped to his basement studio, where the only evidence of the revelry was the constant creak of upstairs floorboards. “Welcome to my lair,” he said.

People around the world are listening to the vibrations that emanated from here several months ago. This is where Alfredson, Gloss and Marsh recorded “Groovadelphia,” their third CD, which climbed the CMJ national jazz charts this fall, spending three weeks at No. 1. “It's a little strange,” Gloss said, “seeing our names up there with all those people we generally idolize.”

Gloss paused, deep in thought. “A part of me wonders whether it's a fluke.”

Alfredson is just happy the group didn't have to give in to a pre-digested formula to get airplay. “It's nice because it's kind of a vindication — people are accepting what we're doing,” Alfredson said.

Step by step, the trio has expanded its range, carving out a series of hybrid dance-soul-jazz grooves all its own. “We wanted to take what we know about jazz and other kinds of music, create something new and be honest about the whole thing, and people seem to be getting that,” Alfredson said.

Gloss said Organissimo's success reminds him of Joe Zawinul, the Austrian-born composer-keyboardist and member of Weather Report. Zawinul, who died in 2007, was a many-faceted musician with a knack for writing popular hits without losing a shred of credibility. “He was able to craft songs that reached out to huge audiences, but there was no obvious pandering,” Gloss said. “I like to think that's our slant, too. We just play music that we like.”

City Pulse - Dec. 10, 2008 - City Pulse

by Mike Matheny - RadioIO Real Jazz

I have to admit that when I preview new music from a group anchored by the jazz organ, I do so with great hope. A hope that there will be fresh creativity and diversity within the selections. So many times I receive new 'burner' albums where each song, one after the other, sounds like the same session, then repeated in reverse. I am happy this week. A new CD came into the radioIO studios from the organ based trio 'Organissimo'. The album is called 'Groovadelphia'... and it destroys all of the stereotypes.

Organissimo is led by organist Jim Alfredson with Joe Gloss on guitar and Randy Marsh playing drums and yes... harmonica! 'Groovadelphia' sure passed my test. The most notable experience I had on first listen of the CD revealed the variety from one song to the next. Once I finished the preview it became obvious to me that a major strength of this entire
package lies in the manner that each song compliments the entire package. It is evident that much thought went into the recording and production of this album.

Let me try to explain what you will experience when putting this CD in your player. Of course there is the typical bop jam as we would expect... 'Third Right On The Left'. I especially enjoyed the organ solo on this upbeat track. I couldn't keep my right hand still while listening. The tune that immediately follows is 'Traces' with a mellow Latin feel. This
song has a spatial depth created by a complimenting dialogue between Gloss on guitar and Alfredson on keys. The depth of expression from both soloists captured and held my attention. Gloss's performance on 'Traces' blended with the subtle organ support is absolutely perfect... it is simply beautiful. The entire album moves about like this. It is
rich in contrasts and diversity with constant surprises. I had to pinch myself on occasion to remember that all that I am hearing comes from only three players.

I am not usually partial to electronic effects and synthesis for jazz production unless integrated with intelligence and taste. Sometimes synthesized voices conflict with musical thought and can negatively date the production. However, done correctly, the synthetically produced sounds can be a huge draw for my personal enjoyment. I have often been
thrilled on the occasion when new voicings are used artistically such as listening to track six, 'If Not Now, When?". The use of the Synth solo in this track is fabulously integrated, providing a texture that fits.

The deliberately funky 'Bleecker' and the fun 'My Sweet Potato Pie' with Marsh on Harmonica battling it out with both Gloss and Alfredson are two of my favorite songs from 'Groovadelphia'. We are going to have these tracks and others from the CD out in front for weeks to come on radioIO Real Jazz. This is truly a magnificent collection of intelligent
arrangements and performances. - RadioIO

Hammond organ trios are prone to some unfortunate expectations about rhythmic grooves and anti-climactic jams, but organissimo is out to prove the detractors wrong. Drawing on blues, Latin jazz, and even the repertoire of the drummer's father, tenor saxophonist Arno Marsh ("My Sweet Potato Pie"), the group's [third] effort makes good on the titular promise of a groove. But that's only part of the equation.

Groovadelphia boasts a cerebral arc that moves away from the dance floor and into a series of gracefully phrased tunes, including the delicate, drumless ballad "Traces". With a strong emphasis on the different possibilities created by Latin rhythms and organist Jim Alfredson's innovative and bluesy approach to the '60s soul-jazz organ trio concept, the material is thoughtful without being too earnest; danceable, but never repetitive.

The Lansing, Michigan based group opens with the title track's playful jam, easing its way into a carefree series of vamps that showcase the big sound a small lineup can get with a Moog, Fender [Rhodes] and Hammond in its midst. Once the foundation's been set, "Senor Buffet" introduces the first of many Latin-based rhythmic structures, followed by a blues shuffle that extends on the relaxed groove idea. ~ Jennifer Odell - Downbeat