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91-640: The Gentle People were a band formed in the United States in 1995. Their sound explored kitschy 1950s lounge and easy listening aesthetics in the context of 1990s club culture . They signed to the UK electronic label Rephlex Records in 1995 and released two albums: Soundtracks for Living (1997) and Simply Faboo (1999). The four members of the Gentle People variously came from the US, UK, and France, and performed under

182-422: A balanced mono signal and AC power directly from the organ via a six-pin cable. Spinet organs contained their own built-in amplifier and speakers. The tone cabinet was originally the only method of adding reverberation to a Hammond organ. The first models to be produced were the 20-watt A-20 and 40-watt A-40. The A-20 was designed for churches and small-capacity halls, and featured a set of doors in front of

273-603: A piano . It quickly became popular with professional jazz musicians in organ trios —small groups centered on the Hammond organ. Jazz club owners found that organ trios were cheaper than hiring a big band . Jimmy Smith 's use of the Hammond B-3, with its additional harmonic percussion feature, inspired a generation of organ players , and its use became more widespread in the 1960s and 1970s in genres such as rhythm and blues , rock (especially progressive rock ), and reggae . In

364-460: A $ 75,000 Skinner pipe organ in the University of Chicago 's Rockefeller Chapel . During the auditory tests, sustained tones and excerpts from musical works were played on the electric and pipe organs while a group of musicians and laymen attempted to distinguish between the instruments. While attorneys for Hammond argued that the test listeners were wrong or guessed nearly half the time, witnesses for

455-547: A 12-note pedalboard. The M model was produced from 1948 to 1951, the M-2 from 1951 to 1955, and the M-3 from 1955 to 1964. The M series was replaced by the M-100 series in 1961, which used a numbering system to identify the body style and finish as used on earlier console series. It included the same manuals as the M, but increased the pedalboard size to 13 notes, stretching a full octave, and included

546-416: A Hammond organ comes from a tonewheel. Each one rotates in front of an electromagnetic pickup. The variation in the magnetic field induces a small alternating current at a particular frequency, which represents a signal similar to a sine wave . When a key is pressed on the organ, it completes a circuit of nine electrical switches, which are linked to the drawbars. The position of the drawbars, combined with

637-430: A Hammond's tuning is concert A at 440 Hz . Crosstalk or "leakage" occurs when the instrument's magnetic pickups receive the signal from rotating metal tonewheels other than those selected by the organist. Hammond considered crosstalk a defect that required correcting, and in 1963 introduced a new level of resistor–capacitor filtering to greatly reduce this crosstalk, along with 50–60 Hz mains hum . However,

728-597: A Leslie speaker. Hammond designed it as the company's flagship product, in response to market competition and to replace the B-3. However, it was considered expensive at $ 9,795 and it sold poorly. It did not sound like a B-3. Hammond introduced their first integrated circuit (IC) model, the Concorde, in 1971. The company had stopped manufacturing tonewheel organs entirely by 1975, due to increased financial inefficiency, and switched to making IC models full-time. Console models included

819-475: A Polynesian song might have an exotic percussion arrangement using bongos, and vocalists imitating wild animals). Many of these recordings were portrayed as originating in exotic foreign lands, but in truth were recorded in Hollywood recording studios by veteran session musicians. Another genre, space age pop, mimicked space age sound effects of the time and reflected the public interest in space exploration . With

910-415: A cheaper design, was not as sophisticated as on the other organs. The L-100 sold particularly well in the UK, with several notable British musicians using it instead of a B-3 or C-3. The T series, produced from 1968 to 1975, was the last of the tonewheel spinet organs. Unlike all the earlier Hammond organs, which used vacuum tubes for preamplification, amplification, percussion and chorus-vibrato control,

1001-407: A church organ. Modern Hammond-Suzuki models use waterfall keys. Hammond console organs come with a wooden pedalboard played with the feet, for bass notes. Most console Hammond pedalboards have 25 notes, with the bottom note a low C and the top note a middle C two octaves higher. Hammond used a 25-note pedalboard because he found that on traditional 32-note pedalboards used in church pipe organs,

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1092-455: A console half-moon or pedal switch, with the most distinctive effect occurring as the speaker rotation speed changes. The most popular Leslies were the 122, which accepted a balanced signal suitable for console organs, and the 147, which accepted an unbalanced signal and could be used for spinet organs with a suitable adapter. The Pro-Line series of Leslies which were made to be portable for gigging bands using solid-state amps were popular during

1183-506: A demo and postcard. The 1995 track "Journey" was their first release. The released the EP Emotion Heater in 1996. The group released their 1997 debut album Soundtracks for Living on the label. The album mixed typical lounge sounds, including strings, harps, and Latin rhythms, with modern dub , pop , and ambient techno influences. It received a positive review from Select , which claimed that "just when you thought easy listening

1274-487: A digital tonewheel simulator. The New B-3 is constructed to appear like the original B-3, and the designers attempted to retain the subtle nuances of the familiar B-3 sound. Hammond-Suzuki promotional material states that it would be difficult for even an experienced B-3 player to distinguish between the old and new B-3 organs. A review of the New B-3 by Hugh Robjohns called it "a true replica of an original B-3 ... in terms of

1365-441: A former lounge musician himself. Later, when Jake and Elwood are in an elevator, Jobim's " The Girl from Ipanema " is heard on Muzak . The 1989 film The Fabulous Baker Boys starred Jeff Bridges , Beau Bridges , and Michelle Pfeiffer as a successful lounge act. Andy Kaufman created a character called Tony Clifton . A parody of show biz entitlement and excess, Clifton is untalented, lazy (often not bothering to remember

1456-414: A good response from bass pedals. Many players prefer to play the Hammond through a cabinet with a rotating speaker known, after several name changes, as a Leslie speaker , after its inventor Donald J. Leslie . The typical Leslie system is an integrated speaker/amplifier combination in which sound is emitted by a rotating horn over a stationary treble compression driver , and a rotating baffle beneath

1547-435: A goofy married duo of lounge-style musicians , but in unlikely venues such as high school dances. Part of the humor derived from the incongruous application of their "nerdy" and outdated style to performances of current pop-music hits. British comedians Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones appeared as a cheesy keyboard and bass duo during the end credits of one series of their long-running sketch show. Richard Cheese and

1638-420: A high-quality electrical connection when pressing a key. This design was discontinued with the introduction of the transistor organ. This means tonewheel organs have between 3.2 and 8.4 grams of palladium, depending on make and model. The sound on a tonewheel Hammond organ is varied through the manipulation of drawbars. A drawbar is a metal slider that controls the volume of a particular sound component, in

1729-491: A hotel on the Moon ( Tranquility Base is the site of the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing) and also reflects on modern society and technology, and its effect on the human mind, with frontman Alex Turner taking inspiration from both old school Science Fiction films, and Neil Postman's 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves To Death . Their seventh studio album, The Car also has a laid-back lounge pop sound, continuing their shift in sound to

1820-463: A hotel or cocktail bar, are usually accompanied by one or two other musicians, and they favor cover songs composed by others, especially pop standards , many deriving from the days of Tin Pan Alley . Many well-known performers got their start as lounge singers and musicians. Billy Joel worked in a piano bar for six months and penned the song " Piano Man " about his experience. Lounge emerged in

1911-453: A key on a Hammond results in the sound continuously playing until it is released, whereas with a piano, the note's volume decays. No difference in volume occurs regardless of how heavily or lightly the key is pressed (unlike with a piano), so overall volume is controlled by a pedal (also known as a "swell" or "expression" pedal). The keys on each manual have a lightweight action , which allows players to perform rapid passages more easily than on

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2002-511: A lounge pop, and baroque pop style. In the 1980 film The Blues Brothers , five members of the defunct Blues Brothers have formed a lounge act, "Murph and the Magictones," and are found performing latin-esque music at a Holiday Inn . When the band takes a break to speak with Jake and his brother Elwood, Murph switches on a Muzak version of " Just the Way You Are ," performed by Billy Joel ,

2093-515: A metal tonewheel near an electromagnetic pickup , and then strengthening the signal with an amplifier to drive a speaker cabinet . The organ is commonly used with the Leslie speaker . Around two million Hammond organs have been manufactured. The organ was originally marketed by the Hammond Organ Company to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ , or instead of

2184-419: A note is being played, and a chorus effect where a note's sound is combined with another sound at a slightly different and varying pitch. The best known vibrato and chorus system consists of six settings, V1, V2, V3, C1, C2 and C3 (i.e., three each of vibrato and chorus), which can be selected via a rotary switch. Vibrato / chorus can be selected for each manual independently. The B-3 and C-3 models introduced

2275-400: A number of presets. The L-100 series entered production at the same time as the M-100. It was an economy version, with various cost-cutting changes so the organ could retail for under $ 1,000. The vibrato was a simpler circuit than on other consoles and spinets. Two variations of the vibrato were provided, plus a chorus that mixed various vibrato signals together. The expression pedal, based on

2366-463: A pedalboard with only 25 notes, instead of the standard 32 on church organs, and it quickly became a de facto standard. On April 24, 1934, Hammond filed a patent for an "electrical musical instrument", which was personally delivered to the patent office by Hanert, explaining that they could start production immediately and it would be good for local employment in Chicago. The invention was unveiled to

2457-514: A piano. In contrast to piano and pipe organ keys, Hammond keys have a flat-front profile, commonly referred to as "waterfall" style. Early Hammond console models had sharp edges, but starting with the B-2, these were rounded, as they were cheaper to manufacture. The M series of spinets also had waterfall keys (which has subsequently made them ideal for spares on B-3s and C-3s ), but later spinet models had "diving board" style keys which resembled those found on

2548-444: A recreation of the original B-3 organ using digital technology. Hammond-Suzuki continues to manufacture a variety of organs for both professional players and churches. Companies such as Korg , Roland , and Clavia have achieved success in providing more lightweight and portable emulations of the original tonewheel organs. The sound of a tonewheel Hammond can be emulated using modern software audio plug-ins . A number of features of

2639-434: A set of pickups, it changes the pitch of the overall sound slightly. From here, the sound is sent to the main amplifier, and on to the audio speakers. The Hammond organ makes technical compromises in the notes it generates. Rather than produce harmonics that are exact multiples of the fundamental as in equal temperament , it uses the nearest-available frequencies generated by the tonewheels. The only guaranteed frequency for

2730-431: A similar way to a fader on an audio mixing console . As a drawbar is incrementally pulled out, it increases the volume of its sound. When pushed all the way in, the volume is decreased to zero. The labeling of the drawbar derives from the stop system in pipe organs, in which the physical length of the pipe corresponds to the pitch produced. Most Hammonds contain nine drawbars per manual. The drawbar marked "8′" generates

2821-426: A skirt, often a consideration when a church organ was placed in front of the congregation. The model C did not contain the chorus generator, but had space in the cabinet for it to be fitted. The concurrent model D was a model C with a prefitted chorus. Development of the vibrato system took place during the early 1940s, and was put into production shortly after the end of World War II . The various models available were

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2912-563: A slightly different tone generator. This was followed by the H-100 series, with a redesigned tonewheel generator and various other additional features. An extended model, the H-300, also featured an integrated drum machine . The organ was not particularly well made, and suffered a reputation for being unreliable. Hammond service engineer Harvey Olsen said, "When they [H-100s] work, they sound pretty decent. But die-hard enthusiasts won't touch it." Though

3003-465: A slower pace and generate a lower pitch for a short time. Hammond's New B3 contains similar switches to emulate this effect, though it is a digital instrument. The Hammond organ's technology derives from the Telharmonium , an instrument created in 1897 by Thaddeus Cahill . The telharmonium used revolving electric alternators which generated tones that could be transmitted over wires. The instrument

3094-521: A stationary bass woofer . This creates a characteristic sound because of the constantly changing pitch shifts that result from the Doppler effect created by the moving sound sources. The Leslie was originally designed to mimic the complex tones and constantly shifting sources of sound emanating from a large group of ranks in a pipe organ. The effect varies depending on the speed of the rotors, which can be toggled between fast (tremolo) and slow (chorale) using

3185-555: A sufficient return. In 1936, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint claiming that the Hammond Company made "false and misleading" claims in advertisements for its organ, including that the Hammond could produce "the entire range of tone coloring of a pipe organ". The complaint resulted in lengthy hearing proceedings, which featured a series of auditory tests that pitted a Hammond costing about $ 2600 against

3276-404: Is a documentary about three older punk rockers who created a lounge-punk band. In 2018, British rock band Arctic Monkeys released their sixth studio album, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino . The album, which was a shift in style for the band after 2013's AM , the album has a more lounge pop sound rather than their previous, alternative rock sound. The album is a concept album about

3367-437: Is turned on for about four seconds. The "Start" switch is then released, whereupon the organ is ready to generate sound. The H-100 and E-series consoles and L-100 and T-100 spinet organs, however, had a self-starting motor that required only a single "On" switch. A pitch bend effect can be created on the Hammond organ by turning the "Run" switch off and on again. This briefly cuts power to the generators, causing them to run at

3458-528: The Hammond Clock Company , in 1928. As well as clocks, his early inventions included three-dimensional glasses and an automatic bridge table shuffler. However, as the Great Depression continued into the 1930s, sales of the bridge table declined and he decided to look elsewhere for a commercially successful product. Hammond was inspired to create the tonewheel or "phonic wheel" by listening to

3549-534: The Hammond organ or electric guitar . "Swinging" music of the era is also considered "lounge" and consisted of a continuation of the swing jazz era of the 1930s and 1940s, but with more of an emphasis on the vocalist. Soft and gentle vocalists such as Frank Sinatra , Dean Martin , Dooley Wilson , Pat Boone , Bobby Darin , Jackie Gleason , Wayne Newton , Louis Prima , Sam Butera and Bobby Vinton are notable examples of lounge music. The music of Burt Bacharach

3640-426: The fundamental of the note being played, the drawbar marked "16′" is an octave below, and the drawbars marked "4′", "2′" and "1′" are one, two and three octaves above, respectively. The other drawbars generate various other harmonics and subharmonics of the note. While each individual drawbar generates a relatively pure sound similar to a flute or electronic oscillator, more complex sounds can be created by mixing

3731-400: The "classic" Jimmy Smith sound. In addition to drawbars, many Hammond tonewheel organ models also include presets, which make predefined drawbar combinations available at the press of a button. Console organs have one octave of reverse colored keys (naturals are black, sharps and flats are white) to the left of each manual, with each key activating a preset; the far left key (C), also known as

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3822-399: The 1950s and 1960s are now broadly termed "lounge". The term "lounge" does not appear in textual documentation of the period, such as Billboard magazine or long playing album covers , but has been retroactively applied. While rock and roll was generally influenced by blues and country , lounge music was derived from jazz and other musical elements borrowed from traditions around

3913-572: The 1960s, Hammond began to manufacture transistor organs in response to competitors such as Lowrey and Wurlitzer who were offering them, with a greater feature set compared to tonewheel Hammonds. The first organ that bridged the gap between tonewheel and transistor was the X-66, introduced in May 1967. The X-66 contained just 12 tonewheels, and used electronics for frequency division . It contained separate "vibrato bass" and "vibrato treble" in an attempt to simulate

4004-481: The 1970s, the Hammond Organ Company abandoned tonewheels and switched to integrated circuits . These organs were less popular, and the company went out of business in 1985. The Hammond name was purchased by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation , which proceeded to manufacture digital simulations of the most popular tonewheel organs. This culminated in the production of the "New B-3" in 2002,

4095-428: The 1970s. Leslie initially tried to sell his invention to Hammond, but Laurens Hammond was unimpressed and declined to purchase it. Hammond modified their interface connectors to be "Leslie-proof", but Leslie quickly engineered a workaround. Some Hammond staff thought Laurens Hammond was being irrational and autocratic towards Leslie, but Don Leslie later said it helped give his speakers publicity. The Leslie company

4186-504: The 8000 Aurora (1976) and 8000M Aurora (1977), which contained drawbars and a built-in rotating speaker. Spinet organs included the K-100 and J-400 series, and the "Cadette" V series. Some models included a headphone jack . The B-3 and C-3 were replaced by the B-3000, designed to be a model for professional use that had the same look and feel of the earlier organs. It contained the same controls, but

4277-566: The A-143 was "warm cherry finish, Early American styling". This model numbering scheme was used for several other series of console and spinet organs that subsequently appeared. The D-100 series, which provided a self-contained version of the RT-3, followed in 1963. The E-100 series was a cost-reduced version of the A-100 introduced in 1965, with only one set of drawbars per manual, a reduced number of presets, and

4368-531: The B-2/C-2 and B-3/C-3, respectively. In 1959, Hammond introduced the A-100 series. It was effectively a self-contained version of the B-3/C-3, with an internal power amplifier and speakers. The organ was manufactured in a variety of different chassis, with the last two digits of the specific model number determining the style and finish of the instrument. For example, A-105 was "Tudor styling in light oak or walnut", while

4459-671: The BV and CV (vibrato only) and BCV and DV (vibrato and chorus). The B-2 and C-2, introduced in 1949, allowed vibrato to be enabled or disabled on each manual separately. In 1954, the B-3 and C-3 models were introduced with the additional harmonic percussion feature, advertised as "touch response percussion control". Despite several attempts by Hammond to replace them, these two models remained popular and stayed in continuous production through early 1975. The last B-3 and C-3 organs manufactured were built from leftover parts, and are not considered as good as earlier models. To cater more specifically to

4550-563: The FTC claimed that Hammond employees had unfairly manipulated the Skinner organ to sound more like the Hammond. In 1938, the FTC ordered Hammond to "cease and desist" a number of advertising claims, including that its instrument was equivalent to a $ 10,000 pipe organ. After the FTC's decision, Hammond claimed that the hearings had vindicated his company's assertions that the organ produced "real", "fine", and "beautiful" music, phrases which were each cited in

4641-401: The FTC's original complaint, but not included in the "cease and desist" order. Hammond also claimed that although the hearing was expensive for his company, the proceedings generated so much publicity that "as a result we sold enough extra organs to cover the expense." The Hammond Organ Company produced an estimated two million instruments in its lifetime; these have been described as "probably

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4732-431: The Hammond organ are not usually found on other keyboards like the piano or synthesizer . Some are similar to a pipe organ , but others are unique to the instrument. Most Hammond organs have two 61-note (five- octave ) keyboards called manuals . As with pipe organ keyboards, the two manuals are positioned on two levels close to each other. Each is laid out in a similar manner to a piano keyboard, except that pressing

4823-487: The Lounge Kittens perform lounge-style arrangements of recent popular songs for comedic effect. Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated sound by creating an electric current from rotating

4914-531: The New B-3. The XK-3 is part of a modular system that allows an integrated lower manual and pedals to be added. In response to some clones, including a variety of vintage keyboards in a single package, Hammond released the SK series of organs, which include grand piano , Rhodes piano , Wurlitzer electronic piano , Hohner clavinet , and samples of wind and brass instruments alongside the standard drawbar and tonewheel emulation. Keyboard magazine's Stephen Fortner praised

5005-611: The Parisian band Nouvelle Vague released a self-titled album in which they covered songs from the '80s post-punk and new wave genres in the style of Bossa Nova. Other artists have taken lounge music to new heights by recombining rock with pop, such as Jon Brion , The Bird and the Bee , Triangle Sun , Pink Martini , the Buddha-Lounge series, and the surrounding regulars of Café Largo . The movie The Rise and Fall of Black Velvet Flag (2003)

5096-556: The T series used all- solid-state , transistor circuitry, though, unlike the L-100, it did include the scanner-vibrato as seen on the B-3. Other than the T-100 series models, all other T-Series models included a built-in rotating Leslie speaker and some included an analog drum machine , while the T-500 also included a built-in cassette recorder. It was one of the last tonewheel Hammonds produced. In

5187-662: The US, Hammond manufactures a number of dedicated console organs, including the B-3mk2 and the C-3mk2, and the A-405, a Chapel Console Organ. The company has a dedicated Church Advisory Team that provides a consultancy, so churches can choose the most appropriate instrument. The authorized loudspeaker enclosure to use with a console organ was the Hammond Tone Cabinet, which contained an external amplifier and speaker . The cabinet carried

5278-479: The United States. The new company produced their own brand of portable organs, including the XB-2, XB-3 and XB-5. Sound on Sound 's Rod Spark, a longtime Hammond enthusiast, said these models were "a matter of taste, of course, but I don't think they're a patch on the old ones". In 2002, Hammond-Suzuki launched the New B-3, a recreation of the original electromechanical instrument using contemporary electronics and

5369-614: The advent of stereophonic technology, artists such as Esquivel used spatial audio techniques to full effect, creating whooshing sounds with his orchestra. A good deal of lounge music was pure instrumental (i.e., no main vocal part, although there could be minor vocal parts). Sometimes, this music would be theme music from movies or TV shows, although such music could be produced independently from other entertainment productions. These instrumentals could be produced with an orchestral arrangement, or from an arrangement of instruments very similar to that found in jazz, or even rock and roll such as

5460-414: The cancel key, de-activates all presets, and results in no sound coming from that manual. The two right-most preset keys (B and B ♭ ) activate the corresponding set of drawbars for that manual, while the other preset keys produce preselected drawbar settings that are internally wired into the preset panel. Hammond organs have a built-in vibrato effect that provides a small variation in pitch while

5551-527: The church market, Hammond introduced the Concert Model E in July 1937, which included a full 32-note pedalboard and four electric switches known as toe pistons, allowing various sounds to be selected by the feet. The model E was replaced by the model RT in 1949, which retained the full-sized pedalboard, but otherwise was internally identical to the B and C models. RT-2 and RT-3 models subsequently appeared in line with

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5642-497: The company struggled to survive, proposing the acquisition of a majority stake in Roland in 1972, which the latter turned down. Roland's Ikutaro Kakehashi did not believe it was practical at that point to move the entire manufacturing operation from the US to Japan, and also viewed Hammond's declining sales figures as a problem. In 1985, Hammond went out of business, though servicing and spares continued to be available after this under

5733-524: The concept of "Harmonic Percussion", which was designed to emulate the percussive sounds of the harp , xylophone , and marimba . When selected, this feature plays a decaying second- or third-harmonic overtone when a key is pressed. The selected percussion harmonic fades out, leaving the sustained tones the player selected with the drawbars. The volume of this percussive effect is selectable as either normal or soft. Harmonic Percussion retriggers only after all notes have been released, so legato passages sound

5824-454: The drawbars in varying amounts. Because of this, the Hammond organ can be considered a type of additive synthesis . Hammond manufactured from 1969 onwards have the footage of each drawbar engraved on its end. Some drawbar settings have become well-known and associated with certain musicians. A very popular setting is 888000000 (i.e., with the drawbars labeled "16′", " 5 + 1 ⁄ 3 ′" and "8′" fully pulled out), and has been identified as

5915-472: The early 1990s the lounge revival was in full swing and included such groups as Combustible Edison , Love Jones , The Coctails , Pink Martini , the High Llamas , Don Tiki, and Nightcaps . The multinational group the Gentle People , signed to the UK label Rephlex Records , attracted an international following and appeared on various lounge and exotica compilations. Alternative band Stereolab demonstrated

6006-413: The effect only on the first note or chord, making Harmonic Percussion uniquely a "single-trigger", but still a polyphonic effect. Before a Hammond organ can produce sound, the motor that drives the tonewheels must come up to speed. On most models, starting a Hammond organ involves two switches. The "Start" switch turns a dedicated starter motor , which must run for about 12 seconds. Then, the "Run" switch

6097-529: The influence of lounge with releases like their 1993 EP Space Age Bachelor Pad Music and their 1997 album Dots and Loops , and in 1996 Capitol Records began issuing the Ultra-Lounge series of lounge music albums. The lounge style was starkly in contrast to the grunge music that dominated the period. These groups wore suits and played music inspired by earlier works of Antônio Carlos Jobim , Juan García Esquivel , Louis Prima and many others. In 2004,

6188-484: The instrument had been originally designed for use in a church, Hammond realized that the amateur home market was a far more lucrative business, and started manufacturing spinet organs in the late 1940s. Outside of the United States, they were manufactured in greater numbers than the consoles, and hence were more widely used. Several different types of M series instruments were produced between 1948 and 1964; they contained two 44-note manuals with one set of drawbars each, and

6279-504: The late 1980s as a label of endearment by younger fans whose parents had listened to such music in the 1960s. It has enjoyed resurgences in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, led initially by figures such as Buster Poindexter and Jaymz Bee . In Japan, producer Yasuharu Konishi became popular for his work with Pizzicato Five , and is often considered "the Godfather of Shibuya-kei ," a genre mostly derived from 1960s lounge music. In

6370-462: The look and layout, and the actual sound". The instrument project nearly stalled after a breakdown in negotiations between Japanese and United States staff, the latter of whom insisted on manufacturing the case in the United States and designing the organ to identical specifications to the original. The company has since released the XK-3, a single-manual organ using the same digital tonewheel technology as

6461-433: The most successful electronic organs ever made". A key ingredient to the Hammond organ's success was the use of dealerships and a sense of community. Several dedicated organ dealers set up business in the United States and there was a bi-monthly newsletter, The Hammond Times , mailed out to subscribers. Advertisements tended to show families gathered around the instrument, often with a child playing it, as an attempt to show

6552-425: The moving gears of his electric clocks and the tones produced by them. He gathered pieces from a second-hand piano he had purchased for $ 15 and combined it with a tonewheel generator in a similar form to the telharmonium, albeit much shorter and more compact. Since Hammond was not a musician, he asked the company's assistant treasurer, W. L. Lahey, to help him achieve the desired organ sound. To cut costs, Hammond made

6643-651: The name of the Organ Service Company. In early 1986, the Hammond brand and rights were acquired by Hammond Organ Australia, run by Noel Crabbe. Then in 1989, the name was purchased by the Suzuki Musical Instrument Corporation, which rebranded the company as Hammond-Suzuki. Although nominally a Japanese company, founder Manji Suzuki was a fan of the instrument and retained several former Hammond Organ Company staff for research and development, and ensured that production would partially remain in

6734-450: The names Dougie Dimensional, Laurie LeMans, Valentine Carnelian, and Honeymink. The group describe themselves as an "audio-visual experience" and labeled their sound "E-Z-Core." They were signed to Rephlex Records (co-run by Richard D. James a/k/a Aphex Twin ), despite the group's "relaxed brand of sugar-coated, vocal-based easy listening " being quite different from the output on that electronic label. The signing occurred after they mailed

6825-625: The older model continued to be available as the AB until October 1938. A model BA of 1938 may be seen and heard at the Musical Museum , Brentford England. Criticism that the Hammond organ was more aesthetically suitable to the home instead of the church led to the introduction of the model C in September 1939. It contained the same internals as the AB or BC, but covered on the front and sides by "modesty panels" to cover female organists' legs while playing in

6916-536: The organ as a center-point of home life and to encourage children to learn music. Hammond organs, as manufactured by the original company, can be divided into two main groups: The first model in production, in June 1935, was the Model A. It contained most of the features that came to be standard on all console Hammonds, including two 61-key manuals, a 25-key pedalboard, an expression pedal, 12 reverse-color preset keys, and one for

7007-451: The original 122 speaker, the company announced in 2013 that they would start manufacturing a standalone Leslie simulator in a stomp box . Although they are sometimes included in the category of electronic organs, the majority of Hammond organs are, strictly speaking, electric or electromechanical rather than electronic organs, because the sound is produced by moving parts rather than electronic oscillators. The basic component sound of

7098-451: The pedals. To address concerns that the sound of the Hammond was not rich enough to accurately mimic a pipe organ, the model BC was introduced in December 1936. It included a chorus generator, in which a second tonewheel system added slightly sharp or flat tones to the overall sound of each note. The cabinet was made deeper to accommodate this. Production of the old Model A cases stopped, but

7189-560: The public in April 1935, and the first model, the Model A, was made available in June of that year. Over 1,750 churches purchased a Hammond organ in the first three years of production, and by the end of the 1930s, over 200 instruments were being made each month. By 1966, an estimated 50,000 churches had installed a Hammond. For all its subsequent success with professional musicians, the original company did not target its products at that market, principally because Hammond did not think there would be

7280-623: The single manual SK1, indicated that it gave an accurate sound throughout the range of drawbar settings, and said the organ sound was "fat, warm, utterly authentic". The XK-1c model was introduced in early 2014, which is simply an organ-only version of the SK1. An updated flagship organ, the XK-5, was launched in 2016, and a stage keyboard, the SK-X followed in 2019, which allows a player to select an individual instrument (organ, piano or synthesizer) for each manual. In

7371-399: The sound of tonewheel crosstalk is now considered part of the signature of the Hammond organ, to the extent that modern digital clones explicitly emulate it. Some Hammond organs have an audible pop or click when a key is pressed. Originally, key click was considered a design defect and Hammond worked to eliminate or at least reduce it with equalization filters. However, many performers liked

7462-458: The speaker, that could be closed when the organ was not in use. The D-20 was introduced in 1937 and only allowed sound from the speakers to escape by a louvered opening on one side and a gap in the top. The most commercially successful set of Tone Cabinets were probably the PR series cabinets introduced in 1959. The 40-watt PR40 weighed 126 pounds (57 kg) and was 37.5 inches (950 mm) high. It has

7553-411: The switches selected by the key pressed, determines which tonewheels are allowed to sound. Every tonewheel is connected to a synchronous motor via a system of gears, which ensures that each note remains at a constant relative pitch to every other. The combined signal from all depressed keys and pedals is fed through to the vibrato system, which is driven by a metal scanner. As the scanner rotates around

7644-506: The top seven notes were seldom used. The Hammond Concert models E, RT, RT-2, RT-3 and D-100 had 32-note American Guild of Organists (AGO) pedalboards going up to the G above middle C as the top note. The RT-2, RT-3 and D-100 also contained a separate solo pedal system that had its own volume control and various other features. Spinet models have 12- or 13-note miniature pedalboards. Hammond organ manuals and pedalboards were originally manufactured with solid palladium alloy wire to ensure

7735-513: The words to the songs), and abusive to his audiences. Bill Murray also portrayed a particularly bad lounge singer on Saturday Night Live , Nick The Lounge Singer , best known for providing his own lyrics to the John Williams theme from Star Wars and performing an over-the-top version of the Morris Albert hit " Feelings ". Later on SNL , Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer portrayed

7826-551: The world. Exotica from such artists as Les Baxter , Martin Denny , Arthur Lyman , and The Three Suns sold millions of records during its heyday. It combined music that was popular outside the United States, such as various Latin genres (e.g., bossa nova , cha-cha-cha , mambo as in Cal Tjader 's fine Latin jazz efforts), Polynesian , French, etc. into a relaxed, palatable sound. Such music could have some instruments exaggerated (e.g.,

7917-532: Was 200 pounds (91 kg) lighter than a B-3. Although promoted by Hammond as a suitable replacement, musicians did not think it had a comparable sound. In 1979, a Japanese offshoot, Nihon Hammond, introduced the X-5, a portable solid-state clone of the B-3. Though transistor Hammonds were criticised for their sound, the company remained commercially successful. Many such models were sold to churches, funeral homes and private residences. Laurens Hammond died in 1973, and

8008-467: Was bulky enough to require several railway cars for its transportation, because the alternators had to be large enough to generate high voltage for a loud enough signal. The Hammond organ solved this problem by using an amplifier . Laurens Hammond graduated from Cornell University with a mechanical engineering degree in 1916. By the start of the 1920s, he had designed a spring-driven clock, which provided enough sales for him to start his own business,

8099-554: Was played out in a welter of zany student discos, the elegantly multinational Gentle People come to reaffirm la dolce vita." The group has worked with artists such as Pizzicato Five , Fantastic Plastic Machine , and Deee-Lite . They attracted an international following in the UK, Japan, and US, where they appeared on various lounge and exotica compilations. Their work was also remixed by labelmates such as Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert . Lounge music Exotica , space age pop , and some forms of easy listening music popular during

8190-463: Was sold to CBS in 1965, and the following year, Hammond finally decided to officially support the Leslie speaker. The T-200 spinet, introduced in 1968, was the first Hammond to have an integrated Leslie speaker. Hammond finally purchased Leslie in 1980. Hammond-Suzuki acquired the rights to Leslie in 1992; the company currently markets a variety of speakers under this name. As well as faithful reissues of

8281-573: Was soon featured as part of many lounge singers' repertoires. Such artists performed mainly at featured lounges in Las Vegas casinos. Documented pioneers of the Las Vegas lounge scene, the Mary Kaye Trio were first on the scene in the early 1950s. Lounge singers have a lengthy history stretching back to the decades of the early twentieth century. In any event, these lounge singers, perhaps performing in

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