HammondCast

JON HAMMOND Instruments: Organ, Accordion, Piano, Guitar Attended: Berklee College of Music 1974 Languages: English, German *Jon is currently Host of daily CBS radio program HammondCast on KYOU & KYCY 1550 AM, 7 days a week at 4AM PST. *Performing solo in Hospitals, Nursing Homes regularly. Bandleader for annual overseas dates for over 20 years. *Musician: Jon Hammond is one of the premier B3 PLAYERS in the world. Jon has played professionally since age 12. Beginning as a solo accordionist, he later played Hammond B3 organ in a number of important San Francisco bands. His all original group HADES opened shows for Tower of Power, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Michael Bloomfield. Eddie Money and Barry Finnerty became musical associates. Moving East he attended Berklee College of Music and played venues as diverse as Boston's "Combat Zone" in the striptease clubs during the '70's and the exclusive Wychmere Harbor Club in Cape Cod, where he was house organist with Lou Colombo.

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SHORT REEL Jon Hammond Show PREVIEW

#WATCHMOVIE HERE: SHORT REEL Jon Hammond Show PREVIEW Jon's archive https://archive.org/details/short-reel-jon-hammond-show-preview Youtube https://youtu.be/EH7BnYZbp8I?si=zhT74IroZZ6lel38 FB https://fb.watch/ym-T9PcRxB/ SHORT REEL Jon Hammond Show PREVIEWby Jon Hammond Topics Jazz, Blues, News, Jon Hammond Show, Cable TV, Photography, Travel, Late Rent, Theme SongLanguage EnglishItem Size 28.4M SHORT REEL Jon Hammond Show PREVIEWOrganist, Accordionist, Photographer, TV & Radio Host, Composer,Bandleader - choice clips from concerts with drummer Bernard PurdieJon Hammond Band - 42nd year on Cable TV, Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN), MCTV Manhattan Cable TV Time Warner beginning February 4th 1984 - 28 minute program. Same time slot since 1984, EST: 01:30AM and streaming worldwide. Swinging Funk, Jazz, Blues and News#tvshow #hammondorgan#jazz#blues#news #photography#travel Usage Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International photos by master photographer Larry Gay 2025 NAMM Show kickoff concert ADJ Lighting Arena Plaza StageIt was a huge honor again to play the kickoff concert for 2025 NAMM Show in the Anaheim Convention Center on the ADJ Lighting Arena Plaza Stage with my band Jon Hammond FunkUnit. On the combo: Joe Berger guitar by TV Jones, Ronnie Smith from Oakland CA, Jason Weber tenor sax from Lake Elsinore CA, Koei Tanaka flew in from Tokyo Japan the night before our concert, and yours truly Jon Hammond at the Hammond Sk1 organ - Audio by maestro Montano Tony and the San Diego Event Productions- Akroz Professional LLC Team - we played for about an hour at top of the opening day. Bands NAMM told me, we are a Staple of the NAMM Show - I looked it up, it's not the staple used in offices, A "pillar of the community", wow, thank you very much and for all the NAMM Heads who stuck around to have fun with us January 23rd, 2025! - Jon Hammond Band Photo by master photographer Larry Gay #funky #jazz #blues #namm #audio #staple #hammondorgan #jonhammondshow #adjlighting#ManhattanNeighborhoodNetwork Manhattan Neighborhood Network - MNN https://www.nammshow.org/.../pla.../UGxhbm5pbmdfMjIyNTY3NA== Information2014 NAMM Believe in Music Awardee - Journalist Ricky Richardson Los Angeles News Observer: “Organist Jon Hammond served up a set of original compositions, funky, swinging jazz and blues to the delight of the crowd gathered at the ADJ Arena Plaza Stage." At previous NAMM Show, Jon's special guest was Lee Oskar, along with his 5 piece funk band featuring guitarist Joe Berger, percussionist Chuggy Carter, and tenor saxophonist Jason Weber - drummer Ronnie Smith and from Tokyo, Chromatic harmonica master Koei Tanaka - a close friend of Stevie Wonder. Jon says: "It is always a big honor to play for NAMM, thank you Bands @ NAMM! **From AFM Local 6 Musicians Union: "Jon Hammond is a musician, composer, bandleader, publisher, journalist, TV show host, radio DJ, and multi-media entrepreneur. He currently travels the world, playing gigs and attending trade shows. THE EARLY YEARS Jon Hammond was born in Chicago in 1953. His father was a doctor and his mother was a housewife. They both played the piano. In 1957, his parents moved Jon and his four sisters to Berkeley, CA, where his father worked in a hospital as head of the emergency room. When he was nine, Jon started accordion lessons. “In those days, they had studios where parents would drop their kids off after school for tap dancing and accordion lessons. There were accordion bands and they would compete against each other.” Jon played his first gig at a senior citizens luncheon when he was eleven. Not only did he get a free lunch but he was paid $25 –a lot of money in those days. Jon says his father was supportive, but did not want him to pursue a music career. “He told me that music was a great hobby. He got me a wonderful professional accordion for my Bar Mitzvah, directly from John Molinari, one of the greatest accordionists who ever lived. It was a Guilietti Professional Tone Chamber accordion. That’s the accordion I won Jr. Jazz Champion on in 1966.” In high school, Jon attended a private boys school in San Francisco. He was a class clown, and when it got to the point where he was going to be expelled, Jon took his accordion and ran away from home. He immersed himself in the San Francisco music scene and started playing organ in several bands. By 1971 he was in a four piece rock group called Hades which shared a rehearsal space with Quicksilver Messenger Service. “I was friends with their manager, Ron Polte, who also managed guitarist John Cipollina. We got to open for his band, Copperhead.” Jon in the early 70s Jon continued to play gigs in the Bay Area in different configurations, including a few gigs with a young Eddie Money. By this time Jon had become frustrated with the Bay Area scene. One night while playing a biker bar he got into a fight and his band didn’t come to his defense. “That was the last straw. I was angry and I said I wasn’t coming back.” Jon moved to Boston in 1973 to attend the Berklee School of Music. He also got a gig playing in Boston’s Combat Zone backing up burlesque shows. When Jon saw one of his idols, pianist Keith Jarrett play in New York he told him he was going to Berklee and asked him for advice. “Keith looked me right in the eye and said ‘Berklee can be very dangerous for your music.’ It was like he popped this huge bubble. Years later I came to understand what he was talking about. You have to learn the fundamentals, but the music itself comes from a much deeper place. They can’t teach that, you have to find it yourself.” When Jon’s teachers began sitting in on his gigs in Boston, he questioned why he was in school if the teachers were coming to play with him. He quit school, moved to Cape Cod and started playing with bandleader Lou Colombo. “He did all the private parties for Tip O’Neill. We played what they used to call the business man’s beat. On the gig it was forbidden to swing. It was like swing cut in half. So if you tried to go with the four, Lou would say, ‘Don’t swing it, don’t swing it.’ He pounded it into my head night after night.” LATE RENT In 1981 Jon took a trip to Paris where he broke through his writers block and wrote some of his best music. He returned to New York with his new tunes and started a production company with the idea of getting a record deal for a friend that had played on a #1 hit record. After months of pounding the pavement with no results, Jon realized he had better work on his own music before his money ran out. He took the last of his savings, including his upcoming rent money, and went into the studio to record what came to be known as “The Late Rent Sessions”. The session had Todd Anderson on tenor sax, Barry Finnerty on guitar, Stephen Ferrone on drums, and Jon on B3. They recorded at Intergalactic, the last studio that John Lennon recorded in. Jon had no luck getting a record deal for his new project, but he did get gigs in New York with his band Jon Hammond and the Late Rent Session Men. In 1982, Jon found out about public access television and the idea that anyone could produce a show and get it on TV. He started broadcasting on Manhattan’s public station in 1984. “I decided I was going to produce a radio show on TV. The first episodes showed just my tapping foot and my voice. It was a gimmick. We had graphics that were synchronized to go with the music. It worked out well. People dug it.” Within a few weeks, Jon was interviewed and featured in Billboard Magazine. The Jon Hammond Show was considered an alternative to the clips on Cable TV. “MTV was still in its infancy. We had a concept that was revolutionary. My phone started ringing and we were the hot kids on the block.” LIVING ABROAD Jon continued to play gigs in New York and produce his TV show. In 1987, he went to his first trade show (NAMM) where he was introduced to Mr. Julio Guilietti, the man who built his accordion. He then began traveling to trade shows and making contacts with musicians and companies around the world, including Hammond Suzuki. “They gave me the Hammond XB-2, the first really powerful portable Hammond organ. Glenn Derringer, one of my all-time heroes, presented it to me. I got one of the first. Paul Shaffer from the Letterman Show got the other. At the time there was only one EXP-100 expression pedal–we had to share the pedal. I used the pedal for my gigs and when Paul needed it I would bring it over to him at 30 Rockefeller Center on my bicycle.” In the early 90s, when his New York gigs began drying up, Jon was encouraged to go to Germany. “It was a hard time. My father had just died and there were very few gigs. I got the XB-2 organ right when I needed it, so I decided to take a chance. I bought a roundtrip ticket to Frankfurt with an open return. I went with 50 bucks and stayed for a year. When I came back, I had 100 bucks.” Jon stayed at a friend’s house and played a borrowed accordion on the street until he could get a band together. “I played on the street until my fingers turned blue and would collect enough money to get some fish soup. After about two weeks I got a call—I had put a band together and had 3 gigs coming up. A TV show had heard my story and wanted to do a story on me. At the first gig 19 people came; the second only 15 people came. Then I got the little spot on TV. When I came to the third gig people were lined up down the street. When I walked up I thought they were having an art exhibit. When they said, ‘No, they’re waiting for you.’ I choked up, I couldn’t even talk. So I’ve been playing there every year since. The people in Germany really saved my musical career at a time when very few things were happening for me in New York or San Francisco. I have a really good following in Europe. I keep busy as a musician in the States, playing hospitals and assisted living places, but my band dates I pretty much play overseas.” Jon’s Late Rent Sessions was eventually released on a

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