Big John Patton | Artist

John Patton aka Big John Patton was an American jazz, blues and R&B composer, pianist and organist born 1935 in Kansas City Missouri. He recorded extensively for Blue Note records and performed or collaborated with Lloyd Price, Grant Green and Lou Donaldson. Patton's mother was a church pianist who taught him how to play fundamentals and the rest he taught himself. After high school, he headed East in search of professional work. In Washington, D.C., he found out that R&B star Lloyd Price was playing, and that Price had just fired his pianist and needed a new player. Patton played a few bars from the introduction to "Lawdy, Miss Clawdy" and was given the job. It was a relationship that would last until 1959. After moving to New York he was introduced to the Hammond B-3 organ, which quickly became his instrument of choice, setting up his own Hammond organ trio in 1959. Blue Note artist Ike Quebec became his mentor, introducing him into Blue Note and to one of the most important relationships in his career, the guitarist Grant Green. Patton's solo recording career kicked off strongly with the albums Along Came John in 1963, and the following year with The Way I Feel. 1966-67 then saw the release of a trio of superb albums, Oh Baby!, Got a Good Thing Goin' and Let 'em Roll, which established Patton as one of the most in-demand organists during the golden era of the Hammond B-3 organs. While he continued to release several more great albums, Patton's profile dipped in the 1970s but he enjoyed a comeback in the 1980s and 1990s, often in collaboration with saxophonist John Zorn, with music which incorporated modal and free jazz. The acid jazz movement in the 1980s caused a resurgence in interest in Patton's music in the UK. Blue Note released many sessions that had not previously been released, including Blue John, with Grant Green and George Braith. Patton made several trips to England where he was embraced by the acid jazz community. Among his many fine albums, some standouts include Oh Baby! (1966), Got a Good Thing Goin' (1966), Let 'em Roll (1967), Understanding (1969), Accent on the Blues (1970), Soul Connection (1983), and the archival release Blue John (1986). Patton, who passed away in 2002, developed the nickname "Big John", not because of his size, but because of one of his early songs "Remember the tune, 'Big Bad John'?"

Artist Website: en.wikipedia/John_Patton

Featured Albums: Big John Patton

Related Artists: Grant Green, John Zorn