HISTORY

EARLY YEARS: My interest in pipe organs began some 60 years ago in the years immediately following World War II. I lived in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina forced me to move. My earliest recollections of organ music involved an organ in the S.H. Kress store on Canal Street, and the organist there, Ed Lawman. I attribute my interest in, and love of the organ to those early days of hearing the Kress organ when we went shopping or to the family doctor on Canal Street.

In those days, radio was also heavily sprinkled with organ music. It was an era when there were still live productions on radio, and many shows still featured theatre organs that had been brought into broadcast studios at the major networks and local stations. In the period between World War II and the mid-1950's when live radio folded in favor of television, as many as one in three radio productions regularly featured organ music. Having associated these sounds early on, my interest in organ was there from the very beginning.

Later, I decided to study organ and I began playing in churches and in night clubs. I got interested in Theatre organ specifically because of the availability of inexpensive LP recordings at the 5 & 10 cents stores like Woolworth and Morgan and Lindsey. When I was in high school, one could purchase George Wright and Jesse Crawford records for under $2, and I soon built a large collection of organ LP's, many of which I still own.

New Orleans was a different place back then. There were churches literally on almost every corner, so there was always a music gig for an organist. People still flocked to hear organists such as Ray McNamara at the A&G Cafeteria and Jim Anderson at the Jung Hotel's Charcoal Room even into the late 60's. The Saenger Theatre featured Saturday afternoon organ recitals on the Morton Wonder Organ. As a student in High School, I was still able to study traditional works for choir under the direction of a man who was an exceptional organist as well as a teacher and choir director.

As the landscape changed in the 1970's and on, there was no longer a demand for the music I cherished. With the exception of some traditional jazz in the clubs on Bourbon Street, most of the music played in public places turned to blues and rock, and then to things like rap and hip-hop. While I was taught that all types of music have merit, and that the true musician must keep an open mind, the music that can be reasonably played on the organ, has more or less dried up. As someone said recently, "the Great American Song Book is dead". Today, I still enjoy playing the organ as much as ever. I now put my time and effort into groups like the American Theatre Organ Society where the music I love is still played on occasion.

Music, for me, is a past-time. It is something I do to relieve tension and for self-fulfillment. I understand those folks in the academic circles who agonize over their music, but for me , Music has to be fun, and you have to enjoy playing and listening to it. I think it is sad that some academic types have made the study of the organ a tedious labor, and discouraged all but their own students and the students of associates form moving forward with their careers. It is this kind of mentality that makes people not want to study the organ, and to look upon organists as pompous idiots. I, for one, loathe that mind set, and I believe that if the organ dies, it will be organists who killed it. That is why I have devoted this page, my home, and a good portion of my life to being an ambassador for the organ.