Organ trio

[3] In the 1950s and 1960s, the organ trio became a common musical ensemble in bars and taverns in the US, especially in downtown areas of major cities.

Organ trios used the powerful amplified sound of the Hammond organ, and its ability to fill multiple musical roles (basslines, chords, and lead lines), to fill a bar or club with a volume of sound that would have previously required a much larger ensemble.

The organ trio was a more intimate, smaller ensemble, which facilitated communication between musicians, and allowed more freedom for spontaneous changes of mood or tempo, and for "stretching out" on extended solos.

[2] Guitarist Grant Green performed a blend of jazz, funk, and boogaloo, collaborating frequently with organists "Big" John Patton, Jack McDuff, and Neal Creque and with drummer Idris Muhammad.

Veteran Hammond players such as Emerson and Charles Earland began using synthesizers to "update" their sound to the pop-disco styles of the late 1970s.

John Abercrombie had a futuristic-sounding organ trio with Jan Hammer on Hammond and Moog bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums.

In the tradition of Wes Montgomery and George Benson their sound was infused with more African, blues and post-Bop rhythms with focus on the play of both organist Chris Foreman and guitarist Bobby Broom.

The Danish organ trio, Ibrahim Electric, also explored different kinds of developments from jazz, such as afro-beat, and boogaloo with a strong blues traditional influence, but with the main focus on the Hammond B-3 played by Jeppe Tuxen.

These recordings include Live at Baker's Keyboard Lounge in 2001 (released 2004), and Out of Nowhere, in 2004, and drummer Leonard King's Extending the Language in 2005.

After the Deep Blue Organ Trio disbanded in 2013,[5] Chicago guitarist Bobby Broom, who had been a pivotal player in the group, launched his own organ trio The Bobby Broom Organi-Sation featuring new young Chicago musicians, Ben Paterson on the Hammond B-3 and alternating drummers Makaya McCraven and Kobie Watkins.

[6] The English progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator effectively operated as an "organ trio" beginning in 2006, when saxophonist/flautist David Jackson left, leaving the core of the early-1970s lineup (Peter Hammill (vocals/guitar/piano), Hugh Banton (organ/keyboards) and Guy Evans (drums/percussion) to continue to the present day (as of 2012).

Therefore, the Van der Graaf Generator lineup of 1970-71 (Hammill, Banton, Evans and Jackson) which recorded Pawn Hearts (1971), could also be viewed as an "organ-trio-plus-saxophone".

For example, John Koenig's review of guitarist Rick Zunigar's organ trio recordings notes that Zunigar's "...conception of the organ trio gives us a present-day look at the genre, filtered through all of the tradition of the past, but also infused with other influences and trends that have their roots in the major jazz movements of the last 30 years.

To help the audience hear the three different melodic lines, Bach indicated that the trio sonatas should be performed on two separate manuals (organ keyboards), with the bass pedalboard supplying the third, lower part.

To further help the audience to hear the different upper melodic lines, organists typically use different registrations for each manual by selecting different organ stops.

Jazz organist Jimmy Smith at a show in Italy in 1994; the sax and drumkit of the other trio members can be seen in this picture.
Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer , Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto 1978
Jazz organist Joey Defrancesco, pictured here in 2002, has recorded albums that recapture the "old school" organ trio sound of the 1960s.
The Medeski, Martin and Wood organ trio demonstrates that an organ trio can come in different varieties; in place of a sax or electric guitarist, this band has an upright bass player as the third member.