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When Tony Monaco plays the Hammond B-3, he shakes his head to the vast engine of rhythms that emanate out of the organ. His feet pump out relentless bass lines, and from his fingers come jazzy, chiming chord clusters and dancing lines interposed with fierce, cross-cutting lunges.
At a recent gig at the Rumba Cafe, where he holds forth Tuesday nights when he’s in town, he grinned, laughed and stuck out his tongue as he played the lead, bass line and accompaniment. He was nothing if not an orchestra unto himself. Sometimes he played unison lines and sometimes he opened things up for his trio, guitarist Derek DiCenzo and drummer Reggie Jackson, who managed to bring the spirit of all the great B-3 jams into two tightly packed sets.
All B-3 fans have their favorite wizard. For some, it’s Jimmy Smith, with his deft mix of jazz and blues—who established the vocabulary of the instrument. For others, it’s Hank Marr or Don Patterson, both Columbus natives. A favorite of progressive jazz fans is Larry Young, who explored the B-3 in the tradition of horn players and pianists of the day, steering clear of the formulaic barnburners.
All of those mentioned unfortunately have passed on. But Monaco, 52, is going strong. He’s got an international reputation, having played gigs in Japan, Europe, Canada and all over the U.S. Recently he appeared on a jazz CD, Undeniable, with guitarist Pat Martino, which went to No. 1 on the traditional jazz charts.
You can hear a little bit of all the masters in Monaco’s playing. On the Tuesday I caught up with him, he did a tribute to Smith that captured the great organist’s whiplash technique. And a few songs later, he reprised Patterson’s “The Lamp is Low,” a ballad that allowed the B-3 to simmer with its churchy vibrato.
The sound of the B-3 is as close to acoustic as analog can get. It was built to replicate the pipe organ, and it still conjures the sound of church, albeit in a secular environment. One can only wonder what J.S. Bach, were he alive today, would think of hearing Monaco wailing out a blues on an instrument that once was reserved for inwardly spiritual journeys in a cathedral.
Yet the B-3 is nothing if not spiritual. When jazz is played on the organ, the connection with the ethereal always is established. The harmonies and rhythms rush at the soul. The foot pedals send out cascades of bass that reverberate up your spine. The notes are guttural and growling one moment and squealing the next. And Monaco knows how to build a story on the organ. There’s a whole architecture to his playing.
“A solo is not about impressing other musicians; that’s a fatal mistake,” he says. “A solo is about telling a story. It’s about communicating with the audience in a clear, concise and imaginative way.”
Monaco, who grew up in Columbus, didn’t start on the B-3. At first, he played accordion. But when he was 12, a friend of his father gave him a Jimmy Smith record and it was all over.
“On one side was a 20-minute song called ‘The Sermon.’ The way Smith played was like nothing I had ever heard before,” recalls Monaco. “The music was raw, mystical, magical. It changed everything for me.”
Monaco didn’t immediately get a B-3. His father bought him a Cordovox, an accordion that sounded like an organ. But a few years later, for his 16th birthday, Monaco got the real thing, a new Hammond B-3 and a phone call from Smith, whom he had written to. That year he made his first recording, a mix of jazz and contemporary music. Soon Monaco was playing at Columbus chittlin’ clubs, such as the Needle’s Eye, Good Times and Second Scene.
These days, Monaco has students from all over the globe who study with him online. And though he tours widely, he says it’s his local trio, with DiCenzo and Jackson, that he wants to take with him around the world.
“Like Grant Green and Larry Young and Elvin Jones, like Jimmy Smith’s band, we are the culmination of many ideas,” says Monaco. “Everyone is constantly pushing the envelope. Derek solos like a horn player and adds terrific harmony. Reggie adds spontaneous combustion and turns everything into an explosion of rhythm and texture. We’re ready to take our music out onto a world stage.”
Jory Farr can be reached at joryfarr@gmail.com.
