Gregg Rolie at Slim's in San Francisco

[Dave Pierce]

I just got home from seeing The Gregg Rolie Band at Slim's in The City. Great show!

 

From a style perspective, the band was basically Santana with Carlos' understudy on guitar. There was one song I didn't know, and every other song was either from early Santana days or from the "Roots" CD released last year.

 

Gregg was playing a heavily chopped B3, and he had some sort of controller laying on top, and a largish rack. I could see a Roland rack-unit and a Korg rack-unit in the rack, not sure what else he had.

 

I was hoping to go to school a bit, but the way the stage was situated I couldn't see his hands, keybed or drawbars.

 

It was clear that he and the band were having a blast. There were three percussionists. I've forgotten their names already. But he did say he'd been playing with the congo player for 35 years, so clearly he too was from the early Santana days.

 

Funny story -- when I checked out his rig before the show I didn't see a Leslie anywhere, which really surprised me. When the show started I was stunned at how good the Hammond sounded. I thought, "I have *got* to find out how he's emulating that Leslie!" I saw his keyboard tech standing off to the side of the stage, so I went up to him between songs and asked what Gregg was using for the Leslie emulation. He said "What Leslie emulation?" with a you-dummy look on his face. I mentioned that I didn't see a Leslie up there, and he pointed down. The Leslie was sitting on the floor near the wall, about 12 feet from the stage, mic'ed up. Silly me...

 

--Dave

[b_3guy]

Originally posted by Dave Pierce:

The Leslie was sitting on the floor near the wall, about 12 feet from the stage, mic'ed up. Silly me...

 

--Dave

It seems to be a common thing to put a Leslie off stage. I think it's mostly because of the sheer volume. Often the Leslies are hot rodded in some way, which I'm sure this one is, so they're just a screaming. Volume pedal pushed to stunI get complaints from guys that I'm playing with in regard to my Leslie's volume. My Leslie has 135 watt rms amp replacement with no volume control. So it's really honking. I carry a moving quilt & throw it over the 3 of the 4 sides. This usually does the trick. I don't think I would like having the Leslie off stage. I want to hear the Leslie not some sort of stupid monitoring system. Greg Rolie maybe no Keith Emerson but his solos were a great presentation. They were very melodic with a beginning, middle & ending. The sound he had on the Santana stuff was incredible. His song writing was 2nd to none. If any one should ever wonder about what a B-3 should sound like, or if you are wondering how your B-3 emulator shapes up, give this stuff a listen on a good stereo system. I tell you this story. I have a friend whose a keyboard player. he came over to my house one day & we were talking about my B, etc. He says to me, this is the only B I've ever seen close up. I'm kind of shocked. He's 40 years old. I think about it. They stopped making that design over 25 years ago. They fell out of favour for a while. . . wow. Sorry to run on. Sounds like you saw a cool show!!

[nhcomp45aol.com]

I love watching Soul Sacrafice on the Woodstock video, Plenty of good shots of Greg playing. Dave how was his voice, did he sing the classics. Paul.

[Dave Pierce]

Originally posted by nhcomp45@aol.com:

I love watching Soul Sacrafice on the Woodstock video, Plenty of good shots of Greg playing. Dave how was his voice, did he sing the classics. Paul.

His voice sounded great. When they did Black Magic Woman, it sounded like the record. My wife said, "Oh yeah, that's right, he was the vocalist for Santana too, wasn't he?" Yup!

 

--Dave

[Tedly Nightshade]

" Greg Rolie maybe no Keith Emerson but his solos were a great presentation. They were very melodic with a beginning, middle & ending. The sound he had on the Santana stuff was incredible. His song writing was 2nd to none. "

 

IMHO Rolie absolutely smokes Emerson. He makes Emerson look like he has no idea what a Hammond is for. In fact he makes most people seem that way!

One of the only guys, with Jon Lord, to take advantage of the drawbars in a big way, constantly shaping the sound. Very cool.

 

And yes, great singer!

[b_3guy]

Originally posted by Ted Nightshade:

IMHO Rolie absolutely smokes Emerson. He makes Emerson look like he has no idea what a Hammond is for. In fact he makes most people seem that way!

Everyone can have an opinion. I guess that's why Keith Emerson was voted Keyboard Magazine's Over all Best Keyboard Player for over 20 years. I guess that's why I can play all of Greg Rolie's solo's note for note, where as Emerson's I don't understand a lot of them let alone be able to play them.

Originally posted by Ted Nightshade:

One of the only guys, with Jon Lord, to take advantage of the drawbars in a big way, constantly shaping the sound. Very cool.

Specifically what tunes did he constantly change drawbars to shape the sound?

[Tedly Nightshade]

Anything and everything on Caravanserai, a wonderful album, the last of the great Santana albums, takes the drawbar wiggling to sublime ethereal heights. Highly recommended! Although during a lot of solos you hear a bunch of that.

If you can cop Rolie with all the drama and passion, right on!

[Tedly Nightshade]

As far as my somewhat obnoxiously presented prejudice as to "what a Hammond is for", my tastes run to the bluesy, raunchy, and psychedelic, none of which Emerson manages convincingly for me.

He's just too clinical, like his classical background is showing in all the wrong ways. Not that a classical background couldn't be a wonderful asset instead of an impediment, as it so often is. Just don't think Emerson gets American music at all, like he's condescending to play something he finds quaint and naive.

And why all the Hammond abuse? Hokey rockstar theatrics, making up for the absence of something truly rock&roll.

Rolie's move from Santana to Journey was the end of the best of Rolie, Santana, or Journey. Too bad, that was a nice thing.

But that's more than enough negative stuff I think you'll agree.

[Stephen Fortner]

Gregg Rolie was who made me want to play Hammond when I was around ten, along with Santana's next keyboardist (and all-around virtuoso musician and nice guy) Tom Coster. I heard the solo from "All the Love of the Universe" (Caravanserai) playing on, of all things, a demo stereo in front of a Radio Shack, and was hooked. I squinted through the cassette door at the label on the tape, and wouldn't shut up until Mom bought me the album. Fortunately, Mom's a keyboardist (classically trained pianist) so she kind of understood.

 

I'd love to see Rolie's band live.

 

BTW, the reason Leslies tend to be mic'ed offstage is the reverse: Most purists prefer a stock Leslie (spruced up into spanking new condition) for tone reasons these days, and they don't play that loud. So, you have to have some decent mic gain, and they don't want to be picking up other instruments (like loud guitars) through those mics. It's sometimes a bummer, because the presence of the Leslie onstage is always nice.

[Dave Pierce]

Originally posted by SteveFortner:

Gregg Rolie was who made me want to play Hammond when I was around ten [snip]

Yea, me too. If someone asked me, "why did you start playing rock-style organ, after years of plain piano", a real accurate first-approximation answer would be:

 

"Listen to the title track of Journey's Look Into the Future."

 

Needless to say, this was the pre-Steve Perry Journey, which was basically a different band than the post-Steve Perry Journey.

 

I, too, find Rolie's B3 handling more expressive and emotive than just about anyone else's, including Emerson's. I certainly don't want to start any sort of bashing or comparison session, and Lord knows Emerson is a technician beyond compare. But to me the emotion, rhythm, heart and soul are so much more important than mere technique. But of course, perhaps I feel that way because my technique isn't so hot...

 

--Dave

 

--Dave

[Stephen Fortner]

I think comparing Rolie and Emerson is a bit like comparing apples and engine blocks.

 

Here are two qoutes from Mr. Emerson:

 

"I tried to imitate the sound of people I admired... like Jack McDuff, Big John Patton, Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff ... ... I always followed the jazz organ approach; I still regarded myself as a jazz player. But playing with Palmer and Lake made me play a different way."

 

"I didn't overuse the Leslie because I felt that Billy Preston was doing the Leslie thing... I was coming in from a white European attitude and using the organ in a classical sense while trying to integrate it into the rock 'n' roll thing."

 

(Both quotes from Mark Vail's book The Hammond Organ: Beauty in the B , p. 166.)

 

I can't find the back issue of Keyboard that has a quote I like from Gregg Rolie, but I think it was the one in which he did a master class. (Ernie R, if you're lurking,can you help out here?) I recall him mentioning something about coming mainly from a "feel" perspective in the early days of Santana. He mentioned Jimmy Smith as well, if memory serves, but that's the only similarity.

 

Nightshade, I think that Emerson's "rock star theatrics" served a valuable end. Jabbing knives into the C3 and throwing the L-100 around the stage showed that the keyboard, and keyboard players, could be just as macho, whacked-out, impulsive, and "rock-n-roll" as Pete Townshend smashing his guitar and stabbing its neck through the speaker cabinet. Although this has doubtless brought tears to the eyes of many financially-challenged guitar lovers, I've never heard any of them think he was a lesser musician for it.

 

Aesthetically, I'm right there with you about the type of Hammond playing I like to listen to. Just thinkin' out loud...

[Tedly Nightshade]

Maybe if Hammonds and 67 Strats were a little more common, the abuse wouldn't appal me so! They must have seemed common enough at the time.

 

The best offstage Leslie trick was developed by the Jerry Garcia band, who had the mic'ed up Leslie in a semitruck in the parking lot, for total isolation and to be able to mic it from a suitable distance.

A Leslie is an acoustic instrument, one fortunately loud enough not to require mic'ing. They have that property of sounding big up close, getting lost for a little distance, and then coming together beautifully after 30 feet or so, incredible projection.

My plan is to have one on either side of the stage and not to mic them up. We play almost all acoustic instruments, percussion mostly, it's so beautiful how a natural Leslie sound works in the room with acoustic sounds. Mmmm!