October 25th, 2011
Published by: mooresb
Don Patterson by Bonnie Kay The Hammond B3 Was His Voice, But Jazz Was His Passion October 25th, 2011
Remembrance & Discovery By Bonnie Kay Class of 1959 I don’t know if it was that way for you, but when I was in 7th grade, my fellow classmates and I knew everyone in grades 8 through 12 by name, especially the juniors and seniors. Don Patterson was a junior when I was a 7th grader. I remember him mostly from the football team. I carry around vivid pictures from past times at U-Hi and Don Patterson is in one of them----playing the grand piano in Room 100 before the “chorus” class began. There was a group of boys standing behind him as he was playing music that I hadn’t heard much of before. I had studied violin and piano from early elementary school and there was a lot of record playing and radio-listening in my house, pretty exclusively classical music…. well until rock n’ roll hit around 1955. But Don was playing something different. I remember this scene particularly with some envy since to sit down at the piano and play, with no music, was something I couldn’t do. Martha Dale, Miss Tolbert’s right-hand accompanist, did it too. I envied both of them. So it was a good 15 years later, after college, 2 years in West Africa in the Peace Corps and working in Chicago (all of which enlarged my musical tastes considerably) that I was in Rose’s Record Store on Wabash Ave., thumbing through the jazz piano/organ LPs (Jimmy Smith was very popular) that I came across a cover with ‘Don Patterson’ written across the top. Could it be the same guy? The album didn’t have a photograph of the artist but I bought it anyway and the moment passed. The subject didn’t come up again for another 30 years. Now working in Ann Arbor, and tuned into a local jazz and blues NPR radio station, I heard Don’s name mentioned once again, this time with background from the DJ on Patterson and other big name jazz organists, like Joey Defrancesco, Bill Heid, Gene Ludwig, and Jimmy Smith. The DJ also mentioned something about Columbus, Ohio and my
attention REALLY focused on the radio. Defrancesco was coming to town to play and had made an album in tribute to Don. Wow! The big names. I was convinced now that it was the same Don Patterson I had heard in Room 100. By this time the Internet made everything accessible. I typed in ‘Don Patterson, jazz organist’ and sure enough, a notable list of his recordings, chiefly in the ‘60s, came on the screen. I read he’d recorded with jazz greats like Sonny Stitt, Pat Martino, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Booker Ervin, Gene Ammons, and David ‘Fathead’ Newman. Defrancesco produced an album “Tribute to Don Patterson: Philadelphia Connection”. Album reviews described Don’s playing as “a thinking person’s jazz organist known for his swing and precision”; “Don Patterson made as impressive a series of recordings during the 1960s as any jazz organist” (Don Patterson: Dem New York Dues, Prestige PRCD 24149-2). A very creative person in turbulent times, drugs shortened his career and life. Although Don’s life was less orthodox than many, he was, nevertheless, a productive, creative person deserving recognition as part of the AAUS Great Artist series. Bonnie Kay, Class of 1959
Don Patterson, ( '55 )
Future Great Artist packages are under planning and development with Don Becker who was involved in bringing the Suzuki method to the US, Sterling Smith, Jr. who is engaged in music production for movies in Hollywood, and Shirley Stoughton and husband Don Carlton who taught
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October 25th, 2011
Published by: mooresb
music to the children of American families in Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Jordan and Japan. If you know of a former University School student who should be considered for future great artistic recognition contact Mary Tolbert at the email link below:
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