By Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. The latest playlist from Charnofsky’s Monday show
. The Hammond B-3 story and its jazz stars (pictured: Jones, Baccus Sr., DeFrancesco)
HAPPENING TODAY:
Bored with the usual classical radio fare? Try Eric Charnofsky’s two-hour CWRU program “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music” which airs every Monday from 2-4 pm. This week’s featured music includes Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s String Quartet #1, Olivier Messiaen’s Hymn for Orchestra, Cliff Eidelman’s Night in the Gallery, Tom Lopez’s The Piper’s Son (piano and electronics, Reynaldo Hahn’s Violin Sonata in C & Don Walker’s Cummings Country (SATB chorus, vibraphone, contrabass). Click here to listen to the internet feed, or tune in to 91.1 FM in the greater Cleveland area.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
Chicago inventor Laurens Hammond filed a patent on April 24, 1934 for a new electric organ, an event that produced consequences he couldn’t have imagined at the time. 
The Hammond Organ was meant to provide a less expensive option than the pipe organ for churches, but especially in its eventual configuration as Hammond’s Model B-3 (introduced in 1954 and outfitted with rotating Leslie speakers and harmonic percussion effects), was enthusiastically embraced by jazz and gospel musicians.
Ethel Smith was an early adopter — she advertised herself as “The Queen of the Hammond Organ” and became famous for her arrangements of tunes like Tico Tico (featured in the 1944 film Bathing Beauty).
Other artists pictured above who have now departed, added to the B-3 legacy — like Booker T. Jones, Eddie Baccus Sr., and Joey DeFranceco.
The newest B-3 artist to appear on the Cleveland scene was still in his teens when he performed at Tri-C JazzFest in 2019. Listen to the phenomenal Matthew Whitaker performing with his combo at a jazz festival in Bremen. Germany.
