Keep (it) Swinging: JC Stylles - Exhilaration and Other States

JC Stylles Organ Trio
Head bobbin', finger-snapping swing, grounded in the blues, and grits-and-gravy grooves.(Rick Anderson in All Music Review)
Hans Koert

JC Stylles, Australian born guitar player, now living in New York, recently released an album with his Trio, featuring Pat Bianchi on Hammond B3-organ and Lawrence Leathers on drums. entitled Exhilaration and Other States. The first tune, Knucklebean, an Eddie Marshall composition, strikes the right chords ......... this is great stuff!

I am a huge Bobby Hutcherson fan, Stylles says in the liner notes, and he has been a major influence on me. The Hammond B3-organ played by Pat Bianchi is, nowadays, a rare heard instrument, since the 1950s and 1960s when great organ players like Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff and Wild Bill Davis, to list some, were extreme popular. In the 1980s and the decades that followed the Hammond B3 became less popular and only some great jazz men like Dr. Lonnie Smith ( with good old Lou Donaldson) and Joey DeFrancesco seem to be the last of the Mohicans. In Holland we are lucky to have some great qualified B3-Hammond organ players who love to drag this unwieldy instument.

JC Stylles (photo courtesy: Joe Boggers)
JC Sylles, ( aka Jason Campbell) was born in Australia, where he learned to play the guitar at a very young age. Raised in the rainforests of Kuranda he moved to civilization ( read Sydney) at the age of 16. He became fascinated to the music of George Benson, who had a gig in Sydney for a week. He listened and was able to study with more jazz musicians, which was continued when he moved to the States in 1992, where he met great guitar players like Tal Farlow, Pat Martino and John Abercrombie. He also played jazz guitar with Hammond B3 organ players like Joey deFrancesco, Johnny McGriff, Dr. Lonnie Smith ( the guy with the turban) and Pat Bianchi and the latter can be heard on Stylles' latest album Exhilaration and Other States. When Stylles played one day at the American Legion Post, he heard the whispers that Pat Bianchi was in the audience. Stylles remembers: Sure enough when the quiet, almost subdued Pat graced the Stage, he awoke the B3 beast in a manner which was almost scary. He conjured all sorts of dynamic energy and ideas out of that animal that made you think twice about all its possibilities. Pat Bianchi would take over the B3-Hammond chair a few months later at Perks Jazz Club in Harlem and sets the sound on this JC Stylles album. Stylles met drummer Laurence Leathers some years ago at the American Legion Post Harlem, where he impressed Stylles ..... : He was a drummer that had something special. He had a great sense of swing, combined with a touch that was hard to find in mature drummers, let alone drummers in their mid- to late twenties.

JC Stylles - Exhilaration and Other States ( MTM-68) (cover design: Rebecca Meek)
JC Stylles selected several tracks the organ trio played during their gigs and late 2009 they recorded 18 tracks in one day at the Showplace Studio - half of it is now released on this album.
Stylles selected tunes like Stevie Wonders I Can't Help It, which became popular by Michael Jackson, but also a tunes by jazz legends like Billy Eckstine ( I Want To Talk About It), Don't Explain (by Billie Holiday) and Wayne Shorters Pinnochio. It's hard to tell you which I like best; fact is that Samba Steps, the final track, is a great tune, which was bases on the John Coltrane Giant Steps chords and features all three members of the trio in solos that learn that these three men know how to play the game ..............
The album JC Stylles - Exhilaration and Other States can be ordered at JC Stylles sites.
Hans Koert
keepswinging@live.nl

I really like those B3-Organ Trios popular during the 1950s and 1980s as played by Lou Donaldson ( with Dr. Lonnie Smith, the guy with the Turban, who fascinates me with their "head bobbin', finger-snapping swing, grounded in the blues, and grits-and-gravy grooves", as Rick Anderson wrote in an All Music review about JC Stylles Organ Trio latest album. JC Stylles, Australian born guitar player, surprises with his latest album Exhilaration and Other States - a great groovy album. Don't miss it. The Keep Swinging blog loves to point you to this kind of releases that surprise. If you don't want to miss any, follow the Keep Swinging blog at Twitter ( #keepswinging) or ask for its free news letter ( keepswinging@live.nl). If you love to learn more about its most popular blogs of last month, enjoy its Ten Most Popular blogs site.