carrick

Jean Martyn is playing organ (and she is most certainly entertaining on tv) .She is playing a yamaha EL900 organ. If it was hammond, or classical she was playing she wouldnt have got through, people wouldnt have stood for it . Jean has been touring the UK, Europe and the US for 30 years playing piano, and organ,. She plays in classical, light, theatre, boogie woogie, rock n roll, jazz and pop styles. She has played for celebrities several times, including royalty, and has appeared on the bbc several times too. "Personally I would have thought we had more than enough organists in this country already !" whats that suppose to mean?

Hence why Jean is playing herself down. Still I was surprised that Simon said he liked Jean, this year is the first time a piano act has gotten into the show, and its the first time an organist has made an appearance. Jeans playing to the publics level and they love it, but shes going to have to do something different on Saturday. By then if I was her, I wouldnt care if I won or not. She`s got to the final, so now she should show herself off and give one of her concert performances!

She was playing crocodile rock, which Elton John brought out 30 years ago? I think for the final she is going to have to show off the organ (not just use the piano voices) and do some of her big band stuff with a Jive. She needs to make sure people know she is playing with her feet (im annoyed that the judges havent caught on that she is playing with her feet) as well as her hands. Maybe face them at a different angle? Or have her hands and feet shown on screens, at least people will know, and she will still have to do all that and keep smiling and winking and keeping the crowd going. What also got me about last night was the volume of the rythmns compared to what jean was actually playing. Seems a common thing now to do. I have noticed too lately that alot of younger people seem to be going for older music. I know a local DJ who does alot of 18th and 21st partys and the likes, and hes told me most of the requests he gets are songs from the 50s, 60s and 70s, and alot of things that have been in the charts recently are new takes on old songs. Ive also noticed an increase in old music being used in adverts.

Have you got "Oliver?" Well, well.....Show tunes.....a tiny glimmer of light! To-day "Oliver"....tomorrow.... "Bach trio-sonatas." MM Oliver has bn played to the hilt now. I dont normally watch britains got talent, but i thought id watch this year to see how Jean got on. She is giving a very dumbed down performance to what she would usually give. Going full on organ with the crowd wouldnt go down so well, but she has people giving some attention to the organ world, which given its current state, cant be a bad thing can it? It might not get thousands of young people playing them, but it may generate an interest to some who get curious and decide to delve into things abit more and see what its all about.

And there was proof tonight with Jean Martyn on Britains got talent, it is ENTERTAINMENT that matters. There has been a knock on effect with an increase in vewings on organ videos on youtube and website veiwings since Jeans first audition. She has got the public paying attention to the organ. The first person to do so on a mainstream level for YEARS.

Where?

It was on an Allen(new), it was in tune, the weather was fine, there were no busses on strike, no power failures, no stink bombs. Even the organist at the church was as disapointed as the concert audience were. As far as i can see with this forum, its full of people who will see the organ world out, because of their attitudes. CARRY on letting it down and being in the stuck up little bubble your in. Its a shame really, because there ARE people out there who do work VERY hard at bringing the organ to the public, and are succesful at it. But the image of the organ is ruined by the snobbery which i see ALOT of in this group.

Its not opinion though, it was fact. A whole concert audience (80 people......) got up and walked out by the time Carlo got to the interval!

Carlo Curley...theres a great organist...................................so great that people just get up and walk out!

Theres nothing rude, I said it as it is.

Yes, looks like it when the organ world is filled with SNOBBERY like yourself.

Your missing my point here. NO MATTER HOW MUSICAL OR UNMUSICAL the organist is, it is the popularity that counts. If it is NOT popular, it will die off. The Blackpool style in THIS country is most popular. Im going to give up now, its like trying to talk to a brick wall. Brian Rodwell?? Takes half an hour to work out what he was playing.

Oh yes, when i mention 1,200,000 per year hearing Dixon LIVE in person, dont forget to add it up over 40 years (48,000,000 LIVE at the tower), then the ten year sell out concert tour, weekly broadcasts around the world, plus his recordings which are still being heard today. Wether or not you think his playing was sloppy, unmusical (which is claptrap), the PUBLIC were obviously VERY interested in him and he was and is known all round the world, ALOT of people know of him. It is STILL the Blackpool style organists today who pack venues, where as the likes of Simon Gledhill and Richard Hills are lucky to get 150 through the door. This isnt to say they arent good organists, but its what the public want that matters, and bums on seats and rating show what the public want at the end of the day. They want to be entertained, and to take part in the music.

As do I, with a very successful team.

Kids will NOT know what your talking about when it even comes to the word organ. Even with a good description, they dont know what your talking about. The nearest Ive got to them knowing what one is was the description "a big piano thing with loads of keys in a church". As for Dixon being sloppy btw, there was hardly a mistake in ANYTHING he recorded. How many of the 40+ rank Wurlitzers in the US were built by the Wurlitzer company?!! Not very many, the vast majority of the instruments they built were smaller than 20 ranks!! The Tower organ is one of the best organs that Wurlitzer ever built. It was there to do a job, to be played for dancing, bright strings, brassy reeds etc, and the Q n T couplers are there for a reason, to CUT through the noise of the dancers (which they did VERY well when used properly!!) It was NEVER amplified to the levels it is now (which isnt needed). It is STILL in its original home doing the same job it was always intended to do. Its obvious to me (and several others who have read whats been said) that you dont have a CLUE what your talking about, because if you did, you wouldnt be saying what you are!!!

Unfortunatly all concerts on the 1903 Lewis organ at Ayr town Hall have been cancelled until further notice. This is due to a humidifier leaking into the organ. Surprisingly, the humidifier was positioned above the organ.

"I don't want to sound churlish, but to suggest that Reggie Dixon made the Wurlitzer organ at Blackpool "sound different," is actually quite amusing. Of course an organ sounds different with Tierce Couplers, and it also sounds permanently out of tune when they are used" "I hope my response was not snobbish, but I think I would lack any sort of musical integrity if I stated anything different to what I did. Dixon was a great entertainer, but not a great artist or arranger by any stretch of the imagination, unless you happen to believe that wrong notes and a sloppy accompaniment are a form of re-arrangement." WHAT RUBBISH. You have obviously havent listened to Dixon in his prime. He didnt use quint n teirce (which was used to cut through the noise from the dancers, it was there to do a job, and it did it) that much, not compared to the amount it is used today, he played "simple", clean arrangements with ALOT of off the cuff improvisation. There is more variety of sounds from the Blackpool style than any of the others. You also had the other Blackpool organists, Watson Holmes, Horace Finch, Earnest Broadbent and Ena Baga. His 10 year tour after he left the tower in 1970 was sold out everywhere he went (George Wright also came over, but he didnt manage to fill the theatres, as much of a good organist he was, he couldnt have been so much in the publics taste) While Dixon was at the Tower, it has been calculated that he would have been heard by at least 1,200,000 people each year (He was at the tower from 1930-1970), put on top of that, world wide broadcasts, T.V appearances, recordings. I know of one organist who plays in the Blackpool style, and he has had over 300 bookings this year alone (does that not say what people want to hear?!). Alot of societies avoid booking "certain" organists because of attitudes, and the lack of people attending certain organists concerts would cause them to run at a loss.

Dixon was sloppy?! Maybe in his latter years, yes, as is Kelsall now, when you`ve been playing for 6 hours a day, day in day out for almost 40 years, you do start to get tired. It`ll die out with this "elitist" attitude. The organ will fall off the shelf completely if you dont appeal to the majority. What is the use in booking an organist who may only get 50 -100 people in attendance, when you could have another organist play who will get an attendance of 3-500?! Superficial ratings?! Ratings show you what people want to hear/see, as do the numbers of bums on seats at concert venues. Richard Hills, Simon Gledhill, Jelanni Eddington, Lyn Larsen. I use to LOVE them all, I HATED the Blackpool style. I eventually got tired of the "american (rather george wright)" style organists, same arrangements note for note, same registrations every time, nothing spontanious, same music. I was introduced to the ORIGINAL Blackpool style and Ive never looked back, theres more variety, its more entertaining, its clean, "simple" (you dont have to sit and go through dragged out introductions then over-arranged peices of music which become almost unrecognisable apart from the title). People dont want to have to listen to everything in detail and pick things out, they want to be entertained, they want to be involved in the music.

Would it not occur to you that people request Reginald Dixon because that is what they want to hear?! The organ will NOT get anywhere unless you give the public what they want, hence why Dixon was so popular, he gave people EXACTLY what they wanted.

Shows how much you know about the atlantic city organ!

The organ was restored by Micheal Mcdonald of glasgow in september 2007. Its currently being used a few times a year for concerts.

Swell-Choir Fagottto 32ft on the midmer losh as well. So it has a reed and a flue at 32ft on the manuals

If the church was big enough, It would have to be something along the lines of the Wanamaker organ and the Midmer losh, preferably the M.L. http://www.acchos.org/html/main_organ_reg_...list7index.html

The building is massive, at the time of its opening it was the largest indoor open space in the world, with a volume of over 15 million cubic ft. The point of it being so big it to fill teh hall with sound, and to play for every even held in the building. It was used during idoor helicopter flying, horse racing, football, baseball, netball, tennis, athletics, ice hockey, ice skating, figure skating, stage shows, pegeants, conventions, exibitions, meetings, it was even used when the U.S army occupied the building during WWII, as a marching band. The point of its 64ft was to add a bit of extra "ground" to it. Its sound has to reach all the way to the back of the room, 500ft away, and it has to fill the space. The room is 350 ft wide, 500ft long and 140ft high and held over 40,000 seated. Its definetly a massive acheivement. Only a few people, if any, are still alive today who heard this instrument at its full extent. Those who have heard it have said, its the best thing they have ever heard. Its 64ft isnt all diaphone pipes or dulzian pipes, only the bottom 22 pipes are diaphones becuase the diaphones speak quicker than the reeds. So its a single stop called the 64ft Dulzian. The transition between the two types of pipes isnt noticed.

Yes, they also had problems with rivets shaking loose in the roof beams. What i would love to know is how does that organ sound it its new acoustic?