Les Strand Plays Duke Ellington

Les Strand, an obscure organist and piano player, born Leslie Strandt in Chicago, Illinois, September 15, 1924. Inspired by his father who was a theater organist. Started to play piano at an early age, also playing the organ as well. Through a friend he met Art Tatum when he was 18 and the latter left a great impression on Les. At 20 he started to learn theory first at Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory in Ohio and later at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Came into contact with the bop movement and was a great admirer of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Their playing inspired Les to add modern phrasings into his own playing. Mostly played around Chicago and recorded three albums for Fantasy. *Walter Bruyninckx*

Les Strand' father (George Friedrick Heinrich Strandt) spent most of his career as a musician playing in shows on the theatre circuit in Chicago, taught himself to play the Hammond at the age of fourteen. He began playing in a funeral home before hitting the lounge circuit, and was probably the purest bebop organist who ever played the instrument. His obscurity results from a combination of factors: an inappropriate record label (Fantasy, which had nothing in their catalogue remotely like Strand's jazz organ, and which refused to give much promotion to him), a non-traditional organ (he recorded mostly on the Baldwin, which is not a "bluesy" instrument), and technique, which was so complex that the basic jazz-blues oriented organ trio setting would simply not have worked well with his Tatum-Tristano influenced style. Strand rarely traveled out of the Chicago area, and never appeared in a large East Coast city. He was considered a pioneer and Jimmy Smith referred to him as "the Art Tatum of the organ". In 1971 won Yamaha International Organ contest.

He is rare among jazz organists in that his first instrument was the organ itself (he started with the Hammond at age 14), and his total recorded output consists of three albums on Fantasy, two of which feature the Baldwin organ, and a promotional album for Yamaha. Interestingly, neither Leonard Feather, who produced his Yamaha record, nor Chicago jazz radio programmer Dick Buckley, who wrote the liner notes for one of his records, knew Strand's whereabouts, and small wonder: he retired from active playing at the young age of 40 to pursue a teaching career in 1964, has since retired from teaching and moved to Kansas City. Les died in 2002. *afana.org/jazzorgan*

Les Strand

Plays Duke Ellington

(On The Hammond Organ)

"I wouldn't recommend playing jazz on an electric organ to anyone! I just play and hope for the best". 

This was Les Strand talking, long distance from Milwaukee to Chicago, in response to my call for some words of wisdom and quotable quotes from the artist himself.

During the conversation, I mentioned that jazz on the electric organ was one of my pet peeves... but before I could add, "Until I heard these tapes of yours", Les jumped in with the above statement.

Name all the electric organists you can think of and I can add the following faults: Monotony of the single line, the roar and shriek of the block chords, the addition of string bass to make up for lack of ability with the pedals, everything played at one stop setting, infatuation with weird sounds which the instrument will produce, the staccato sound because of the fast key action, the shock waves that assault the ear from full tremolo, not to forget the ones who hack at a piano with the right hand while clawing the organ with the left.

In fact, now that I set it all down on paper, it's no wonder I couldn't stand organs till now. I guess it's the mastery of the faults of others that makes Les Strand's style acceptable to me. Having played the instrument all his life, Les knows the mechanics of the Hammond electric organ, with the shadings and tonal colors adapted to his own style... just as he adapts Duke Ellington's compositions to his own mode of expression.

Playing Ellington is nothing new for Les. In fact, he has the distinction of having played Duke Ellington for Duke Ellington! He spent one entire night with Duke at Chicago's old Universal Studios cutting Ellington tunes on the Hammond for release on the Mercer Label. Only trouble was that the label folded before any of the sides could be released. "I started the session by copying record arrangements, but Duke stopped me and said he didn't want to hear his arrangements. He wanted my interpretation".

Thus almost 10 years ago, the idea was born that is carried out in this album... the unique conception of treating Ellingtonia just as he'd interpret the works of any other composer...a base on which to build for himself.

"The idea for the album was Fantasy's", said Les. "But for me it was a natural. A labor of love. They left the choice of material up to me, so I got together with a couple of Chicago's best known Ellington collectors, listened to hours and hours of recordings, and came up with the 13 tunes included here".

The drummer is Max Mariash of the Art Van Damme Quintet, and his adaptability, feeling, taste and ear is more apparent when you realize that these sides were cut in one session, most of them first takes.

From the sounds put on tape early in the morning of October 11, 1957, you have hours and hours of listening enjoyment, whether you're a Les Strand fan, an Ellington fan, a jazz fan, or just the casual type listener who likes pretty sounds for a background to your activities.

*Dick Buckley (liner notes)*

Side 1

1 - I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good

(Ellington, Webster)

2 - A Little Posey

(Ellington)

3 - Prelude To A Kiss

(Ellington, Gordon, Mills)

4 - Cottontail

(Ellington)

5 - Black Butterfly

(Ellington, Carruthers, Mills)

6 - Morning Glory

(Ellington)

Side 2

7 - I'm Beginning To See The Light

(Ellington, James, Hodges, George)

8 - Mood Indigo

(Ellington, Mills, Bigard)

9 - I Let A Song Go Out Of My Heart

(Ellington, Nemo, Mills, Redmond)

10 - Carnegie Blues

(Ellington)

11 - Caravan

(Ellington, Tizol, Mills)

12 - T. T. On Toast

(Ellington, Mills)

13 - Just A-Sittin' And A-Rockin'

(Ellington, Strayhorn, Gaines)

Les Strand (organ Hammond B3), Max Mariash (drums).

Recorded in Chicago, Illinois, October 10 (#3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #9, #11, #12, #13), and 11 (#1, #2, #8, #10), 1957.