Dr. Lonnie Smith, the lauded Hammond B3 organist who was named an NEA Jazz Master, died on Tuesday at the age of 79, as NPR reports. His longtime label Blue Note Records confirmed the news.
“We’re deeply saddened to announce that Hammond B3 organ legend Dr. Lonnie Smith passed away today at 79 years old,” Blue Note Records wrote on Twitter. “Doc was one of the funkiest & most inventive organists to ever walk the earth & we were proud to bring this remarkable man’s joyous music to fans all over the world.”
While he became renowned for the Hammond B3 organ, his musical interests developed first while playing brass instruments in school as a teenager growing up in a suburb of Buffalo in the Fifties. Singing was also a forte, and he performed with his doo wop ensemble the Supremes (which predated the famous Motown group).
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