Pete Fallico - The Don Patterson Story

October 16th, 2011

Published by: mooresb

Don Patterson By Pete Fallico Pete Fallico on Don patterson

Joey DeFrancesco

October 16th, 2011

By Pete FallicoKUSP-FM Santa Cruz, California

Don Patterson has been referred to by many as the 'Be Bop Organist'... That is, Don's style of playing was fast and articulate with borrowed ideas from Bop musicians. He was also known for his deep expression on ballads and was thought to be one of the finest interpreters of Blues on the Hammond organ. It was this fast and furious articulation of notes, however, that caught the eyes and ears of so many admirers.

Charles Earland once described Don's playing as 'typewriterlike' and, to this day, even he emulates Don's staccato style.

These were Don Patterson's trademarks and few if any other players pulled them off as well as he did.

In conversations that I've had with other players through the years, Don's name has always come up. He has either influenced or been greatly admired by just about every serious player on the current jazz organ scene ... and yet it is Don's volume of work which is least represented amongst those who play and record in this style of American music.

Don recorded with saxophone greats like Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Booker Ervin, Sonny Rollins, Jimmy Heath, George Coleman, Jimmy Forest, David 'Fathead' Newman, Gene Ammons, Eddie Daniels, Richie Cole, Charlie Rouse, Junior Cook, Houston Person and Sonny Stitt, to name a few. He played with numerous others musicians like Paul Weeden, Grant Green, Blue Mitchell, Ted Dunbar and Al Grey but it was his steady performing and recording with his own trio of Pat Martino and Billy James that has always seemed to me to be incomparable. Many of the younger jazz organists of today have actually taken the time to go back and find Don's work in used record stores...while others, like Joey DeFrancesco went out of their way to hear Don first hand and learn from him while he was still alive. I suppose life is, after all, for the living... and as I write these words (March 1999) it seems more logical to be releasing the past recordings of someone who is still with us and who can still travel around the country making appearances in support of such re-issues and new releases. It still frustrates me, however, to see the disparity between the numerous vinyl recordings I have by Don and what is available in stores on the CD format. Why should a musician of such greatness be neglected during our current Jazz Organ renaissance.

Fellow jazz organ aficionado, Bob Porter, is instrumental in many of the current 'Acid Jazz' releases on Prestige. He remembers Don Patterson as a reserved man who fit more of the 'sideman personality'. "He was really kind of a shy individual", says Bob, "He was not made out to be a band leader and was always associated with being Sonny Stitt's organ player". Bob worked with Don in the studio during the late sixties and described him as someone who "wanted to play and didn't really care about anything else"... sometimes showing up to a session with only one tune. With many tunes "made up on the spot" there was little chance of Don securing the band leader status that others had. In spite of this, his music on his own records or with others soon became some of the most potent in the entire genre. I have to believe that if Don were alive today, he'd be invited to many of these revitalized organ jams or summits... He'd be hailed, along with Larry Young, as a player who took the organ a step further.

Don Patterson was born on July 22, 1936 in Columbus, Ohio where he attended the University School. He began as a piano player but switched over to the organ after hearing Jimmy Smith (sound familiar?). As a pre-teenage pianist, he was inspired by Carmen Cavallaro whose records Don's father would play in the house. Soon Don would hear Erroll Garner and be completely enthralled. He emulated this style by copying Erroll's solos note for note. Don did read music well, unlike Erroll, but shared Erroll's ability to swing naturally.

Other influences on the piano included Horace Silver, Bill Evans, Red Garland and both Bud and Richie Powell. In 1956, Don heard Jimmy Smith playing the Hammond organ and something was triggered inside him. He knew that the organ would become his instrument as well. In Columbus at that time there was a club called the Club Regal where organist Hank Marr played regularly. Hank remembers seeing Don come into the club to see and hear an organ up close and real.

"He seemed to be extremely curious about the organ when I 1

October 16th, 2011

first met him", recalls Hank... "I saw something in his eye...he was affected just like I was and decided he, too, had to play this thing... Mine was the first organ he played". Since Hank was Don's first real connection with the organ Don took advantage of some first hand tutelage. "I introduced him to the stops and (showed) how we did the bass line... I let him know what was going on... the rest he pretty much taught himself". With this basic knowledge under his belt, Don was ready for some woodshedding...

In 1959, Don Patterson made his professional debut on the Hammond organ. He began playing with a variety of musicians but did not establish a real foothold in the music world until he became the organist of choice for Sonny Stitt.

Sonny had the best of both worlds in Don Patterson. Don brought the pianistics often needed to propel Sonny's bopish groove as well as the hard driving, sustaining power of the organ itself. Sonny held on to Don as he swung though the sixties. Through Sonny and Gene Ammons, Don began carving out a solid reputation in cities like Chicago and Atlantic City.

Sonny Stitt Don became strong enough to appear with only a drummer.

His friend Billy James began to appear regularly with him and the two of them supported a continuous stream of local, regional and national musicians through the jazz organ circuit. At one point, guitarist Pat Martino entered the scene and the rest, as they say, is history. Pat had been working within the same circles as Don and Billy and recalls the manner in which the three met: "I had connected with Don Patterson when I was with Jack McDuff... I had left Willis Jackson... That entire period was called the 'Chitlin Circuit' and during those years, you would go from one club to another, very much like casinos, but these were small lounges and in each you would come into contact with some of the most ferocious players... well, I did so". Although Pat hailed from 'organ town', AKA Philadelphia, Atlantic City was also a real hot spot for jazz organ in the mid sixties.

"I was working in a place called the Wonder Garden in Atlantic City with Jack McDuff", recalls Pat, " and up the street, across

Published by: mooresb

the street from Club Harlem, was a place called Gracie's... and in Gracie's were Don Patterson and Billy James. I can't tell you what that did to me... in hearing Don Patterson for the first time. It was like hearing John Coltrane. He was the most formidable, powerful organist that I had ever experienced... and we formed a family in Billy James and Don and myself". Pat would stay with Don and Billy for several years contributing significantly to Don's evolving sound. "This gave me the opportunity... and we remained as family for a long, long time... That's how we came together. I was impressed so deeply that I was committed to it... I couldn't avoid it".

In the late sixties, Don shifted his activities to Gary, Indiana where he played off and on until the early seventies. During this period of time, Don did not record with a major label.

His life style and inactivity caused some folks to rumor that he had died when in fact he was just not playing as much.

Without dwelling on the unfortunate aspects of Don's life, suffice it to say that he was addicted to drugs. He never really dealt with this problem until it was too late for him and he was forced to take radical medical treatment just to stay alive.

He moved to Philadelphia where he felt he could re-establish his recording career. He recorded for Joe Fields at MUSE Records and began a series of strong recordings for Prestige.

While in Philadelphia, Don became associated with the elite of Jazz Organ. Trudy Pitts and her husband Mr. C became close friends and supporters of Don and his music.

To this day, Trudy remembers Don with deep and genuine admiration. "Don Patterson, I think, was my favorite jazz organist", Trudy confides, "He had such balance and musicality in his spirit. His vibe and continence was so balanced that he didn't have to make up for anything with volume. His ideas were in perfect balance with his hands and feet. Listening to him made me think of a piano player AND a bass player in the truest sense. He was the one..." In fact, it was Don who Trudy called one New Year's Eve when she realized she couldn't make her gig at Alfredo's Restaurant in Philadelphia. She had tripped on a curb that day and broke her ankle. Don, at that stage in his life, was on dialysis in order to stay alive and this process was debilitating to say the least. "In previous times when I would talk to him", recalls Trudy, "He would tell me that that procedure would take everything out of him." The camaraderie and devotion that Don felt for Trudy, however, gave him the inner strength needed to do that gig for her that night. "Don Patterson got out of the bed and came and did the gig for me!".

Don was playing with power and assurance into the seventies as the Hammond organ continued to fight for respect in the world of jazz. Record reviews and critiques of live performances were often cruel and unflattering to so many of our jazz organists. A typical piece from the sixties was written by Ben S. Page in Downbeat magazine as he reviewed a live show from the Bohemian Caverns in Washington DC. He writes: "Patterson's chief fault is his gross lack of restraint.

And since such unabashed forthrightness is the rule among jazz organists rather than the exception, Patterson's hell-bent attitude seems all the more regrettable..."

As much as I hate to re-write this or any other negative article on jazz musicians, I feel I must... so that I can say something 2

October 16th, 2011

Published by: mooresb

about how jazz organists like Don Patterson were treated in the press during the sixties. Few reviewers were deeply appreciative of this instrument or the entirely new style of jazz it provided. Most who held the power of the pen were quick to criticize or ridicule the proponents of jazz organ. The organ, itself, was never given the respect that it deserved in the jazz circles. It has been treated like a bastard child and neglected by those who should have known better.

Don Patterson was one musician who, in my opinion, suffered from the shallow perspectives of too many so-called jazz critics. Don was sincere and honest as a jazz organist and the onset of high tech keyboards only added salt to the wound as the Hammond B-3 organ went out of production in 1975 and the synthesizers quickly became the vogue. Don's last gig might well have been at the Old Time Presbyterian Church on 4th and Pine in Philadelphia. This was the home bass for Mr. C's Jazz Vespers series which Don and his group agreed to do.

That night Trudy Pitts recalls the haunting look in Don's eyes.

"When I was standing so close to him, looking in his face... I could see death in Don's face... " Just a few days later Don went back into the hospital; he died shortly after this.

The May 1988 issue of Downbeat magazine gave the date of Don's death as February 10... the cause being: 'complications'.

Don may have been a quiet man who didn't do a lot of self promoting but he was also one of the loudest voices we have ever had in the Jazz Organ community. Today, there are but a hand full of CDs available for those interested in hearing one of the finest jazz organists who ever lived. These include: Streetlights (under Eddie Lockjaw Davis' name) on Prestige # 24150-2; Dem New York Dues on Prestige # 24149-2; The Genius of the B-3 on MUSE # 5443; Boppin' & Burnin on Prestige # 983-2; Steady Comin' at'ya' on 32 Jazz # 32092; Legends of Acid Jazz on Prestige # 24178-2; and John Simon Trio featuring Don Patterson on MUSE # 5566.

For those who want to search through stacks of used records at flea markets and garage sales, numerous albums can be found under Don's name on Prestige while sidework can always be found on Sonny Stitt's older stuff (Jazzland, Roulette, Cadet).

Don's style has been emulated by numerous other players who grew to appreciate the clarity and balance in his playing. Don Patterson's contribution to the world of music, let alone the area of Jazz Organ, has been under-acknowledged and it's time something be done to rectify this.

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