Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
JP Schlegelmilch (left), Jonathan Goldberger and Jim Black
(Photo: Reuben Radding/Peter Gannushkin/Emiliano Neri)For more than two decades, Jim Black’s been the backbeat to some extraordinary collaborations, usually settled somewhere at the fringes of the jazz ecosystem.
In a new trio, the drummer continues working some avant and psychedelic sounds into the genre alongside guitarist Jonathan Goldberger and keyboardist JP Schlegelmilch. The troupe, angling to re-invigorate the organ trio format, is set to issue its debut, Visitors, on Sept. 21.
The effort veers from rock-inflected, grandiose gestures on “Chiseler” to McLaughlin-meets-ambient gambits on “Terminal Waves.” Below is the debut of another track from the album, “Corvus,” a cut spacey enough to generate empathy for long-lost space explorers and robots, despite being named after a bird.
“Corvus refers to crows—it’s the genus of birds they belong to. And some kind of black magic did happen in the studio with this track,” Goldberger said. “It’s written in a meter that’s odd and not so intuitive, and Jim just ate it for breakfast. The intro is interesting in that we pre-recorded JP’s organ into a ’70s Korg tape echo, then had to sync it up with tape playback.”
For additional information about the upcoming disc, visit Skirl Records. DB
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
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