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| Jazz organist Lyman Woodard dies Woodard, who died Tuesday at Owosso Memorial Hospital at age 66, was a stalwart on the local jazz scene for decades. But he really hit his stride in the 1970s, when his band, the Lyman Woodard Organization, took up residence at Cobb's Corner, a Cass Corridor nightspot that became a leading showcase for jazz in Detroit. Mixing a grits 'n' gravy, bluesy approach to jazz with R&B, soul, funk and even a bit of disco, Woodard created a charismatic brew, with booty-shaking rhythmic grooves supporting natty horns and enough improvisation to give the music an edge of spontaneity. Woodard was a master of the octopus requirements of the organ, playing bass lines with his feet on the pedals and his left hand, adding riff-like chords or single-note lines with his right hand and controlling the pacing and dynamics of the music like a maestro of soul. People took to him like catnip. "In the '70s he was the king of club entertainers in Detroit, " said his publicist, Matt Lee. "He wasn't just a musician, he was a personality." Lyman Elnathan Woodard III was born in Owosso on March 3, 1942. He played piano at first and studied for six months at Oscar Peterson's Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto. But his fate was sealed one night while driving around in his car in the early '60s and he heard a record by Jimmy Smith, who pioneered the use of the Hammond B3 organ in modern jazz. Woodard took up the instrument and began working in Flint, Jackson, Lansing and Detroit. His first trio featured guitarist Dennis Coffey and drummer Melvin Davis. "The organ is spiritual, like the Holy Ghost, " Woodard told the Free Press in 1992. "There are things you can do with the organ that you can't do with the piano." In the late '60s and early '70s Woodard worked and recorded extensively in pop music and Motown circles, including stints with the 8th Day and Undisputed Truth and several years as musical director for Martha Reeves. By the mid-'70s he was back leading his own bands and packing in crowds at local night spots. Among the musicians who worked with Woodard were trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, saxophonists Allen Barnes and Norma Jean Bell, guitarists Robert Lowe and Ron English and drummer Leonard King. Two Detroit-bred stars on the national scene, alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett and violinist Regina Carter, both played formative gigs with Woodard when they were honing their craft. In the mid-'90s, Woodard scaled back his band to a lean trio with King and guitarist Robert Tye and re-emphasized his jazz roots, though funky backbeats were always part and parcel of his music. Woodard had been in semi-retirement the last few years, slowed by health issues. His last local appearance was in November at a record-release party at Cliff Bell's in Detroit. He was the guest of honor but played sparingly. Woodward's 1975 LP "Saturday Night Special" (Strata), regarded as a jazz-funk-soul fusion classic and highly sought after on the collector's market, is scheduled for reissue on audiophile vinyl by the Wax Poetics label on March 23 and will be available as a download at http://digital.waxpoetics.com. Woodard's other albums include "Don't Stop the Groove" (recorded at Cobb's Corner in 1979), "Dedication, " "Live at the 1996 Ford Montreux Detroit Jazz Festival, " "Live at J.J.'s Lounge" and "74/93 - At Last." write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Jazz News :: home page |