Brian Charette, Cory Weeds, John Lee & Dave Sikula - You Don't Know Jack! (2024)

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Brian Charette, Cory Weeds, John Lee & Dave Sikula - You Don't Know Jack! (2024)

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I came to the Hammond organ quite by accident. I was a pianist from an early age and moved to NYC after college in 1994. I had planned on becoming a hot shot pianist but was starving in the beginning. To make ends meet, I started taking Chitlin Circuit blues gigs with artists like Percy Strothers and Lee "Shot" Williams. I was just 21 years old and got my first credit card which I maxed out immediately getting what was brand new tech at the time; a portable Hammond XB2 and Leslie speaker which I was going to use on the tours. As I was unpacking the stuff when it arrived in my kitchen at 96 St. Marks Place in the East Village (The building on the cover of the Led Zeppelin album, Physical Graffiti), I got a call from Frank Bambera who is a great jazz and latin drummer to play at The St. Marks Bar on the corner of St. Marks and 1st Ave. He needed an organist in an hour 200 feet away and I had no idea how to play the organ but was holding one in my hands the moment he called. I showed up with the gear, somehow got it working, and managed to play the gig. I, at this point, knew nothing about drawbars, percussion, anything really. Luckily, people liked my playing and I started to play regularly at the St. Mark's Bar. In a short while I was playing with Ralph Lalama, Jay Collins, lots of cool people. All of a sudden, I had stopped being a pianist and became an organist, almost overnight. I bought a real Hammond Organ and put it in George Coleman Jr's studio on the lower east side and started to practice hard. This is when I met George Coleman Senior as well. After a few months of work, I started to play at a great place in Harlem called Showman's with trumpeter Joey Morant. Many young jazz cats who are now all big names would come by and jam. The tempos were fast and the tunes were long so I really had to get my pedals together. Another amazing bit of information is that the organ belonged to Jack McDuff. The organ was constantly in a state of disrepair and I would always have to fix it in the middle of the gig. My favorite quirk about the organ was that the pedals would all stick and the only way for me to fix them was to do this sweeping acrobatic move on the bench, swoop down and pull the pedals up from underneath. It's these moments that inspired this new album. Jack was always my favorite organist. To me, he wrote the best compositions of all the great organists. I loved his sound and approach. It's in this spirit that Cory Weeds and I conceived the music for this album. At points we are very traditional and in other spots we stretch and try to bring Jack's vibe into the 21st century. We hope you enjoy our heartfelt tribute to The Captain, Jack McDuff.