Richard "Groove" Holmes 1931-1991
Groove came to Seattle a number of times in the 1980s. The tapes below are the almost complete record of two nights on this first visit in May of 1982. Groove had with him possibly one of the greatest and most storied "organ drummers" of all time, Joe Dukes. Dukes made himself famous on a long series of classic Jack McDuff recordings on Prestige. He was a brilliant nut with absolutely killin' time. Just listen.Speaking of incredible time, take Groove Holmes. Words can't do justice to his playing, and I wish I could comment on every song here, but nobody would read all that. So, about the equipment he brought with him: the B-3 was worn out and the whole thing wobbled back and forth as Groove played it, and his giant size made the organ look tiny. The output from the two manuals was split, which made possible the addition of a Nova Bass unit to the lower manual. This took the organ tones and added synthesized effects to them, then the result was fed to a stomp box called an envelope follower. The funky result was then fed to a wall of Acoustic amplifiers with 15" speakers and horns on top, no Leslies at all. The upper manual had another little stomp box added, a "Leslie effect." Didn't sound like a Leslie, but it added a nice juicy vibrato when wanted. The upper manual also had a wah-wah pedal attached to it, little-used here.
Scroll down below the picture to play the clips.
As with the McDuff tapes, some tunes are incomplete, or interrupted when the tape had to be turned over. Many tunes continue on into another without really stopping, and I have kept those together, so that can make for some large files. Figure about 1 MB per minute of playing time. Many of the tunes appear twice, designated #1 or #2, and the different versions are very well-worth checking out. You'll hear some blistering tempos on some of these, with long and astounding drum solos. You will hear his attempt to please a "contemporary audience" (in 1982) with some R&B Pop material, but this is where Groove goes extremely funky. Besides these, I have to make special mention of my very favorite clip, "Jeanine," for it's wonderful clockwork time, the beautiful chording, the odd Impressionistic solo, and the fabulous breaks. Maybe it's just me; you can have your own favorite.