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Hammondbeat Records (founded 2002)

American record label dedicated to bands and fans of the organ sound — not a genre label in the traditional sense, but one embracing every genre the organ has influenced. Also functions as an online community connecting fans to hundreds of organ bands and the indie labels that support them (discographies, downloads, web radio, forum).^[raw/articles/wikipedia-hammondbeat.md]

Origin

  • Began in 1997 as JTQgroove, a fan website for the Hammond-led acid-jazz band the James Taylor Quartet (JTQ).^[raw/articles/wikipedia-hammondbeat.md]
  • The fan collective outgrew one artist and attracted next-generation organ-centric bands, leading to a recording project with The Link Quartet (Piacenza, Italy) — JTQ-influenced veterans with Paolo 'Apollo' Negri on keys.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-hammondbeat.md]
  • Business model: controls most of its catalog for both entertainment and marketing/synchronization licensing.^[raw/articles/wikipedia-hammondbeat.md]

Catalog highlights

  • 2002 HBR-001: Beat.it — The Link Quartet (the label's first title)
  • Recurring artists: The Link Quartet, Paolo 'Apollo' Negri, The Special Agents, Phat Fred, The Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E., Leslie Overdrive, Low Fidelity Jet-Set Orchestra, Captain Hammond, The Dansettes
  • The acid-jazz band most responsible for the modern revival is the James Taylor Quartet (JTQ), founded 1985 around Hammond player James Taylor — the label itself began as their fan site.

Roster

Next-generation organ bands and artists on the label (pages for those with dedicated sources; the rest are roster-only until sources warrant pages):

  • The Link Quartet — Piacenza, Italy; the label's flagship; Paolo 'Apollo' Negri on keys
  • Paolo 'Apollo' Negri — Link Quartet organist; solo albums HBR-009/012/014/017
  • The James Taylor Quartet — the inspiration; JTQgroove fan site became this label
  • The Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E. — Winterthur, Switzerland; spy-soundtrack organ rock (The Living Eye, 2006)
  • Leslie Overdrive — Denmark; ...With the Hammond, In the Beauty (2007)
  • Roster-only (no page yet — single weak sources): The Special Agents, Phat Fred (Don't Spoil The Soup!, 2006), Low Fidelity Jet-Set Orchestra, Euro Cinema, Sven Hammond Soul, The Dansettes, Fil Lorenz Soul-tet, Baron Samedi Ecstatic Soul Quintet, Nick Rossi Set, Flyjack, The Blaxound, Captain Hammond, Fred Leslie's Missing Link
  • 2002–2014: 17 main catalog CDs (HBR series), limited-edition EPs (HBL), 7" singles (HB7), and a digital/fan CD-R series (HBB); a small "Vibesbeat" imprint (2013)
  • Labels like this are the institutional tail of the jimmy-smith-rooted organ-trio tradition — the acid-jazz/organ-revival scene that treats the B-3 sound as a genre-independent idiom (see dr-lonnie-smith for the jazz side of the same revival).
  • hammond-b3 — the sound the label is organized around
  • jimmy-smith — widely called the father of the acid-jazz scene Hammondbeat grew from