Description
b. 12 July 1935, Kansas City, Missouri, USA, d. 19 March 2002, Montclair, New Jersey, USA. Unusually for a Hammond organ master, Patton was not born in Philadelphia. His mother played piano in church, and Patton took the instrument up in 1948. He played in the Lloyd Price band from 1954-59, quitting just as Price topped his 1952 hit Lawdy Miss Clawdy with a string of three million-sellers. Patton moved to New York and switched to the Hammond organ. He was signed to Blue Note Records on the recommendation of Lou Donaldson, debuting with Along Came John in 1963, which featured Grant Green on guitar. In the late 60s he worked with tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan and guitarist James Blood Ulmer, as well as sitting in with Sun Ras musicians.
In the 70s he moved to East Orange, New Jersey. John Zorns use of him on a track of The Big Gundown in 1986 rekindled interest in Pattons career, and in the 90s when the Hammond B3 was experiencing another comeback, Pattons work was rightly compared to the leaders of the genre, Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff, although his style was less complicated and more riff based. He died of complications arising from diabetes in March 2002.
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