Alexander Hawkins, John Edwards and Steve Noble are the Hammond Organ players in Decoy. A free jazz group is made for the disturbing and distorted Hammond organ sound. This combo has a rich pedigree that includes a low-cost substitute for the church pipe organ, novelty instrument (vide Walt Disney’s Blame it On The Samba, part 1 of his 1948 animated movie Melody Time), and a jazz cool tool bar none courtesy Smiths – Jimmy, Dr Lonnie, McGriff, Patton and Young. With their overblown bastard tones, the Leslie cabinet’s excessively loud tones were used to produce the freedom sound. The improv community has ignored the Hammond, despite Ra doing it (free jazzfunk on Lanquidity 1978). It is surprising because it has a huge tonal range, visceral attack and speed of articulation, and a sheer presence and volume. This combination, when combined with a powerful drum ‘n-bass combo (as in this example), makes for compelling and reality-jarring music. Alexander Hawkins is a pipe organ player, which makes him an ideal Hammond player – you can hear them in the album’s playout). He also exploits the C3’s potential to the maximum – he pulls out all of the stops. The interstellar sounds in the opening Outside In, the slick be-bopisms from Decoy and the fine spine-juddering scenes of Shadows are just a few of the many highlights. Noble and Edwards, the rhythm team, never let it stop (of course), injecting, prompting and inspiring, and then kick-assing. Great players are capable of playing solo and rhythm simultaneously without having to compromise either role. Noble and Edwards can effectively create a groove using their own instruments (Noble’s cymbal work and Edwards bowing), to counterpoint Hawkins’ additive waveform synthesis. At times, the three can fuse into one, an augmented Hammond. from http://www.boweavilrecordings.com
