Jon Hammond at the Organ and Microphone
*Click HERE For AUDIO: Behind the Beat Jon Hammond: Late Rent by Steve Rosenfeld http://behindthebeat.com/2004/12/jon-hammond-late-rent/ The Late Rent Story Jon Hammond waited half his life to make this CD –
starting with being an underground TV host. Swingin’
Funky Jazz & Blues Jon Hammond describes his style of music and how he learned to play it. Two Hot Tracks Jon Hammond recalls one of his first songs – from age 15 – and a great
Sunday session. Sonny’s Advice A little advice on melody from a great sax
player went a long way. Jon Hammond says "the fingers are the singers.’" The latest CD from this exceptional and soulful Hammond organist is the proof. "Late Rent" draws on decades of great recording
sessions and top live performances to showcase his own playing and many top jazz and funk artists. It shows why the Hammond organ is one of the most enduring electric instruments and why Hammond is
one of its best players. 
Listen to Album Quality Audio HERE: Hammond's Bolero album track from Jon Hammond http://youtu.be/xRCG3wt6ARY most high quality Audio: Hammond's Bolero track 1 title track from Jon Hammond http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hammond This is Jon Hammond's inspired all-original trio album played with the intensity of a live performance. It features great
saxophone work by Alex Budman and the sophisticated funky sound of Ronnie Smith, Jr. on drums. Accordion and guitar embellish several tracks, and the overall sound is very musical and unusual. Lots
of powerful groove drives some really great Jon Hammond compositions such as "Soon I Will Be Free", "Cannonball 99 (One More Time!), "Six Year Itch", "Jennifer's Song" and "9/11 Tribute." Artist:
Hammond, Jon Trio Title: Hammond's Bolero Format: CD Label: HAM-BERGER-FRIZ RECORDS Catalog Number: 103 UPC Code: 601637970522 Price: $9.98 (All prices include domestic shipping.) Genre: JAZZ City
Hall Records Catalog Independent Record Distribution since 1973 Album Notes 
Letter to the Listener from Jon Hammond: November 28, 2002 Dear
Listener! This record marks a new beginning for me, and I would like to dedicate it to all those who like myself are striking out on their own and going it alone. Don't be afraid to follow your
dreams. I did and now this record is for you! On November 5th, 2002 at 11:00 hours I entered in to Studio "D" of UNIQUE RECORDING STUDIOS in Times Square NYC with my producer/engineer Joe Berger
along with S.F. Bay Area musicians Ronnie Smith (drums) and Alex Budman (tenor sax). I had just come back from performing in Shanghai at the first MUSIC CHINA. My mission was clear...because of all
our busy schedules and logistical problems, we had a 4 hour window to play down 13 of my original compositions live to Pro Tools recording format with Joe Berger at the controls, ably assisted by
Heath Aiken. From the first tune I knew that this would be my best record ever. Twelve of the tracks made this record and the 13th will be on the next record! As I was telling the musicians...on this
record each of us is larger than life. I am very proud to feature the undeniable pocket feel of Ronnie Smith, the great left-handed funk drummer from East Oakland. Also it is my pleasure to feature
one of the finest and most musical tenor saxophonists to come out of the Bay Area in a long time: Alex Budman. The incredible guitar work features my long-time partner Joe Berger (Ham-Berger
Productions). Joe has played with John Entwistle, Vangelis and many greats, plus he is responsible for the fine sound of this recording and mastering. Joe joined the band on tracks 1 & 3, title
song Hammond's Bolero and Cannonball 99. Bobby and Joanne Nathan's Unique Recording Studios was the perfect studio and environment for our live recording. Special thanks to Bobby and Joanne and the
Unique staff! 
I fired up the house HAMMOND organ and felt right at home
immediately. Although we cut these tunes in one session, (a new speed record at Unique Recording Studios!), it took my whole life to refine my songs and get to this point where I was ready to record
them...and ALSO to select musicians who could not only play their asses off, but are very nice cats who play my music with much enthusiasm and uplifting spirit. Like all bandleaders I have had more
than my share of nightmare situations with "difficult" musicians so I am always happy when I can record and play with trouble-free musicians on the band! These are the guys. This was Ronnie's first
trip to New York City. The night before our session he and Alex went to hear the Village Vanguard Monday Night Bigband while I stayed home in my Times Square apartment preparing the music for the
session. There is a story behind every one of these compositions. The title track "Hammond's Bolero" (track #1) means literally Romantic Music. Even if you are not a dancer you'll want to dance to
this track! As on every track all the musicians are featured with the addition of the totally amazing guitar work of JOE BERGER. He does some "terrible things" to the strings on his guitar ladies and
gentlemen! Guitar Heads and even Carlos Santana...look out!! 
On every one of my albums I
like to do something original that has never been done before. On this record the very first sound that you will hear is the sound of me popping the cork out of a very nice bottle of Red Bordeaux
wine! I have always thought this to be a "happy sound", so kick back and enjoy a glass of Bordeaux with my music if you have the possibility to do so. Also I announce the title of every one of my
songs. The reason I do this is because so often on the radio song titles are not announced...well, I fixed that! I recorded the cork and my voiceovers on my new acquisition, which is a fine Chinese
manufactured Tube Microphone from SUPERLUX in Shanghai. My EXCELSIOR tonechamber accordion has custom SENNHEISER microphones in it with a very slick modification by main man ALEX of Alex Accordions
Guitars shop around the corner from Unique Recording Studios on W. 48th St. in New York (on the famous strip of music shops). This was my first outting using the electronics in my hand-built
accordion and I was very pleased with the natural sound we got on the recordings. Track #2, "Jennifer's Song" I wrote for my girlfriend Jennifer. Once you have heard "Jennifer's Song" you'll never be
able to get it out of your mind. Melody is King! Perhaps you will hear my Russian/Hungarian heritage coming from this melody. 
"Cannonball 99" (One More Time!) #3 is a rollicking shuffle
that I would like to dedicate to all those out there on the superslab with the hammer down driving cross-country. "Cannonball" means non-stop, coast to coast. I have driven more miles than most
people will ever live to drive. I've seen 18 wheel trucks drive off the side of a mountain in black ice...drivers falling asleep at the wheel and angry people driving like idiots. Buckle up for
safety, keep a CB radio and a cell phone in the car and please drive safely out there everybody! JOE BERGER joins us for a rockin' solo on this one, ala ZZ TOP. He's been cannonballin' on the
big-time tour busses with everybody from The WHO's JOHN ENTWISTLE who we unfortunately lost last year, to boy band DREAM STREET. We call him the "Berger-meister"! You might see me out there one more
time...my handle on the CB radio is: "T-Bone Steak". They'll be playing the hell out of this one down in the Bayou on my friends' radio station www.KBON.com in Eunice Louisianna...laissez les bon ton
roulette, Cannonball 99...One More Time! 
This next song, (#4) "Soon I Will Be
Free" is sure to be the theme song for a future TV show or movie! Ronnie's Gospel and Shuffle beats are undeniable. I wrote the tune in D flat (5 flats)..the tonality of the bass lines I played on my
MZ2000 CASIO monster bass keyboard will shake the china in your neighbor's kitchen! Smokin' track...dig the accordion I layed down and soulful saxophone playing from Alex. This one will make you snap
your fingers until they're too sore to snap no more! "Thing In C Minor" (#5) is a serious 3-way jam featuring Ronnie with an East Bay Funk groove and solo in the middle. We jam so hard at the end
that when we hit the final slam together, I think you'll agree when I say that this track has one of the greatest endings ever recorded! (the other greatest ending is on Czechoslovakian Salsa
Song..track #9!) "Cosmo Lane" (#6) was a song I wrote while looking out of the window at my San Francisco apartment. There is a little street called Cosmo Lane where the pigeons shit and the
crackheads smoke and whatever else they do. I often would face my keyboard out the window and play while looking at this little street. Soon after I wrote the song a friend of ours in Germany named
his new son "Cosmo". I thought...oh that is pretty cosmic, because how many Cosmo's do you know?! Only one I can think of was on the old TV show "Topper". And now the hotel around the corner has
changed it's name to "Cosmo Hotel"...and last week when I played for first time in Osaka Japan, there Jennifer and I were in a fine hotel on Cosmo Place! So here it is for you..."Cosmo Lane". The
guys think this would be another good one for TV show theme. 
Track #7 "Remembering
Stanley" is my tribute to recently deceased tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, featuring our saxophonist Alex Budman. I never played with him, but our main man Joe Berger worked with Stanley on
the road and mixed his last record. This tune starts out with a quote from J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue in C Minor...I always wanted to do that because it so firmly establishes the tonality of the key
like nothing I have ever heard! The head of the tune is a little bit reminiscent of The Pink Panther. Well ladies and gentlemen...the Pink Panther is dead..and so is Stanley, so here you have it..
"Remembering Stanley"! Some fine tribute playing by Alex on the tenor sax...check it out! 
"Six Year Itch" (#8), is a very strong tune. I was telling the
cats...this song is like an anthem! I could imagine a very hip marching band doing this song someday. I actually wrote it as I completed the first 6 years of my television show (The Jon Hammond Show)
in New York. I had heard about the famous 7 year itch that married couples experience. And then in 1985 I was offered a major contract from then President of Sony Software, John O'Donnell. I'll never
forget how at our meeting on the 48th floor of 9 W. 57th St. in New York at Sony Headquarters he told me, "Jon, we here at Sony believe that you will be tremendously successful within 3 years."..And
then here I was 6 years on the air with my show and I was thinking...well Mr. O'Donnell...I hope you are right but I guess you are off by just a few years! And now I am just about to wrap up the 19th
year of my TV show on Feb. 2nd, 2003 I begin my 20th consecutive year of broadcasting The Jon Hammond Show. Stay tuned, and here it is now for you..."Six Year Itch"! 
"F.P. Blues" (#9) is a song I wrote during my days living in
the famous St. Pauli section of Hamburg Germany by the Reeperbahn. There was a club there I played at which had a very unusual name that I finally shortened to these initials so I will not be blamed
for being a sexist...hey, I didn't name the club! But anyway we have a good friend also with the same initials-Francoise Pujol, a fine musician in Paris...so it can be for Francoise also. A swinging
shuffle blues with some growling tenor sax from Alex...this is a very common kind of feel to what I was playing 7 nights-a-week in Boston's Combat Zone strip clubs back in the '70's "Czechoslovakian
Salsa Song" (#10) has a very interesting story! I wrote this song during one of my frequent visits to play in Prague. Even though now they call it Czech Republic I prefer to think of it still as
Czechoslovakia. I have enjoyed performing and giving seminares (as they are called there) in Prague several times. And in my travels there I have found it very interesting that in this place where
there is a rich history of music and culture, there is a big movement of Salsa Music. Yes that's right...they love Salsa Music in Prague! And so while there I met the main Czechoslovakian salsa cat
and we composed this song with the very memorable melody together. Does anybody out there know the name of the main Czechoslovakian salsa cat? His name is: Saul Salsoskovitch!....cymbal hit please!!
Have a nice Czech beer from Pilsn and enjoy the song! 
"Train Song" (#11) is a melody that
came in to my head while riding on the AMTRAK passenger train across the country. I was looking out the window at the beautiful Colorado Rockies while hearing the melody in my mind. The train is very
close to my heart because I originally came out from Chicago to Berkeley California with my mother and sisters on the "California Zephyr" in the year of 1957..I was 4 years old then and didn't quite
understand the concept of "going to another state"...well, after some days on the Zephyr, I knew what that meant! I often used to like to play by the train tracks as a young cat and even today I
gravitate towards the tracks when I feel like just kicking around. Yesterday we took some photos of the trio and it naturally came in to my mind that we should shoot the pictures down by the Berkeley
train tracks. I used to like to squish pennies on the track and so I put down 3 pennies for good luck before we did our photo shoot. It's not always so easy to find the coins after they are squished
by the train. Then they fly around in the gravel and debris...Jennifer found all 3 coins, so now I know we will have good luck with this record! And so not to make it too complicated as my old friend
Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins would say...I call this one, "Train Song"...swingin' down the tracks! 
Track #12, the final track of this record album is a very
special track for me....this is my tribute to all the victims of the horrible attacks of September 11th 2001. I told Jennifer and all my friends after receiving the terrible news that, "Now is the
time for the musicians to do our work." Because I live in Times Square New York and also my girlfriend works in the airlines and so like everyone else this event has hit very very close to home. In
some ways it brought us all closer together. One week after Sept. 11 we went to Hamburg Germany to visit my close friends there and I was also moved by how deeply our friends in Germany and all over
the world were affected by the tragedy. In many ways we live in a different world today now. The American flags were out in Hamburg and everywhere we went folks! We have a great country and so as
introduction to my composition "Get Back In The Groove" I play some strains of "America The Beautiful" in medley with my song. I wrote G.B.I.T.G. when I was only 15 years old and coming through a
tough time in my life. For all the people out there who are getting back in the groove, this song and album is dedicated to YOU. I'm writing these liner notes on Thanksgiving Day which is a beautiful
American tradition. I have plenty to be thankful for this year and so I would like to thank all of the people who helped me somehow to make this album of my compositions a reality. It's been a long
time coming even though we recorded it in record time. Please read my special thanks and if I somehow omitted your name and you know you belong on the list, please forgive me as my mind gets a little
cloudy the older I get, but I didn't really forget even one person who has helped me on this long journey up to the release of "Hammond's Bolero". Now buy the record and come out to our gigs! Come by
the bandstand and say hi, I'm easy to find...I'll either be behind my HAMMOND organ or strapped in to my EXCELSIOR Accordion. As my friends from Russia and Ukraine say: "Nastarovya!" However you say
it...here's to your health and my romantic music here on this disc comes from our hearts to all people around the world in the international language of instrumental music...in the rhythm of life!
Sincerely yours, Jon Hammond â„¢ "The FINGERS...are the SINGERS!" from Germany/Hamburg That´s a pretty kettle of fish!!! This music will twist you round one´s little finger-it´s so beautiful it took
my breath away - really - take it from me!!!Just what the doctor ordered:-)GREAT! Jon Hammond can bring the house down - yeah! Andreas Breunig Ich würde sie auch gerne mal hören...., die cd! Ich
wohne unweit der "Schnulze" in Hamburg. Vor 2 Jahren auf einem nach-Hause-Weg hörte ich Musik. Sie kam aus der Schnulze. Und sie war gut, verdammt gut! Später erfuhr ich, welch hochkarätigen Musiker
in dieser kleinen Kneipe gespielt haben, einfach unglaublich... Wann bist du wieder in Hamburg, Jon ? When are you back in Hamburg/germany, Jon ? Please, give me a mail ! My Friends here are sometime
in a very, very big wintersleeping, you know... Thanks for your Music !!! And best wishes to a great musician under our sun !!! Andreas from Hamburg Michael August this music is great! Hi, i´m the
artist and designer of this cd-cover, i hear it in every time and this music change my live! it´s absolut wonderful, fantastic! it blows my mind away! Late Rent, ASCAP Audio Portrait, Steve
Rosenfeld, Jon Hammond, Swinging, Funky, Jazz, Blues, Hammond Organ, Bolero, Accordion, Local 802, Musicians Union
Listen to Album Quality Audio HERE: Hammond's Bolero album track from Jon Hammond http://youtu.be/xRCG3wt6ARY most high quality Audio: Hammond's Bolero track 1 title track from Jon Hammond http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/hammond This is Jon Hammond's inspired all-original trio album played with the intensity of a live performance. It features great
saxophone work by Alex Budman and the sophisticated funky sound of Ronnie Smith, Jr. on drums. Accordion and guitar embellish several tracks, and the overall sound is very musical and unusual. Lots
of powerful groove drives some really great Jon Hammond compositions such as "Soon I Will Be Free", "Cannonball 99 (One More Time!), "Six Year Itch", "Jennifer's Song" and "9/11 Tribute." Artist:
Hammond, Jon Trio Title: Hammond's Bolero Format: CD Label: HAM-BERGER-FRIZ RECORDS Catalog Number: 103 UPC Code: 601637970522 Price: $9.98 (All prices include domestic shipping.) Genre: JAZZ City
Hall Records Catalog Independent Record Distribution since 1973 Album Notes 
Letter to the Listener from Jon Hammond: November 28, 2002 Dear
Listener! This record marks a new beginning for me, and I would like to dedicate it to all those who like myself are striking out on their own and going it alone. Don't be afraid to follow your
dreams. I did and now this record is for you! On November 5th, 2002 at 11:00 hours I entered in to Studio "D" of UNIQUE RECORDING STUDIOS in Times Square NYC with my producer/engineer Joe Berger
along with S.F. Bay Area musicians Ronnie Smith (drums) and Alex Budman (tenor sax). I had just come back from performing in Shanghai at the first MUSIC CHINA. My mission was clear...because of all
our busy schedules and logistical problems, we had a 4 hour window to play down 13 of my original compositions live to Pro Tools recording format with Joe Berger at the controls, ably assisted by
Heath Aiken. From the first tune I knew that this would be my best record ever. Twelve of the tracks made this record and the 13th will be on the next record! As I was telling the musicians...on this
record each of us is larger than life. I am very proud to feature the undeniable pocket feel of Ronnie Smith, the great left-handed funk drummer from East Oakland. Also it is my pleasure to feature
one of the finest and most musical tenor saxophonists to come out of the Bay Area in a long time: Alex Budman. The incredible guitar work features my long-time partner Joe Berger (Ham-Berger
Productions). Joe has played with John Entwistle, Vangelis and many greats, plus he is responsible for the fine sound of this recording and mastering. Joe joined the band on tracks 1 & 3, title
song Hammond's Bolero and Cannonball 99. Bobby and Joanne Nathan's Unique Recording Studios was the perfect studio and environment for our live recording. Special thanks to Bobby and Joanne and the
Unique staff! 
I fired up the house HAMMOND organ and felt right at home
immediately. Although we cut these tunes in one session, (a new speed record at Unique Recording Studios!), it took my whole life to refine my songs and get to this point where I was ready to record
them...and ALSO to select musicians who could not only play their asses off, but are very nice cats who play my music with much enthusiasm and uplifting spirit. Like all bandleaders I have had more
than my share of nightmare situations with "difficult" musicians so I am always happy when I can record and play with trouble-free musicians on the band! These are the guys. This was Ronnie's first
trip to New York City. The night before our session he and Alex went to hear the Village Vanguard Monday Night Bigband while I stayed home in my Times Square apartment preparing the music for the
session. There is a story behind every one of these compositions. The title track "Hammond's Bolero" (track #1) means literally Romantic Music. Even if you are not a dancer you'll want to dance to
this track! As on every track all the musicians are featured with the addition of the totally amazing guitar work of JOE BERGER. He does some "terrible things" to the strings on his guitar ladies and
gentlemen! Guitar Heads and even Carlos Santana...look out!! 
On every one of my albums I
like to do something original that has never been done before. On this record the very first sound that you will hear is the sound of me popping the cork out of a very nice bottle of Red Bordeaux
wine! I have always thought this to be a "happy sound", so kick back and enjoy a glass of Bordeaux with my music if you have the possibility to do so. Also I announce the title of every one of my
songs. The reason I do this is because so often on the radio song titles are not announced...well, I fixed that! I recorded the cork and my voiceovers on my new acquisition, which is a fine Chinese
manufactured Tube Microphone from SUPERLUX in Shanghai. My EXCELSIOR tonechamber accordion has custom SENNHEISER microphones in it with a very slick modification by main man ALEX of Alex Accordions
Guitars shop around the corner from Unique Recording Studios on W. 48th St. in New York (on the famous strip of music shops). This was my first outting using the electronics in my hand-built
accordion and I was very pleased with the natural sound we got on the recordings. Track #2, "Jennifer's Song" I wrote for my girlfriend Jennifer. Once you have heard "Jennifer's Song" you'll never be
able to get it out of your mind. Melody is King! Perhaps you will hear my Russian/Hungarian heritage coming from this melody. 
"Cannonball 99" (One More Time!) #3 is a rollicking shuffle
that I would like to dedicate to all those out there on the superslab with the hammer down driving cross-country. "Cannonball" means non-stop, coast to coast. I have driven more miles than most
people will ever live to drive. I've seen 18 wheel trucks drive off the side of a mountain in black ice...drivers falling asleep at the wheel and angry people driving like idiots. Buckle up for
safety, keep a CB radio and a cell phone in the car and please drive safely out there everybody! JOE BERGER joins us for a rockin' solo on this one, ala ZZ TOP. He's been cannonballin' on the
big-time tour busses with everybody from The WHO's JOHN ENTWISTLE who we unfortunately lost last year, to boy band DREAM STREET. We call him the "Berger-meister"! You might see me out there one more
time...my handle on the CB radio is: "T-Bone Steak". They'll be playing the hell out of this one down in the Bayou on my friends' radio station www.KBON.com in Eunice Louisianna...laissez les bon ton
roulette, Cannonball 99...One More Time! 
This next song, (#4) "Soon I Will Be
Free" is sure to be the theme song for a future TV show or movie! Ronnie's Gospel and Shuffle beats are undeniable. I wrote the tune in D flat (5 flats)..the tonality of the bass lines I played on my
MZ2000 CASIO monster bass keyboard will shake the china in your neighbor's kitchen! Smokin' track...dig the accordion I layed down and soulful saxophone playing from Alex. This one will make you snap
your fingers until they're too sore to snap no more! "Thing In C Minor" (#5) is a serious 3-way jam featuring Ronnie with an East Bay Funk groove and solo in the middle. We jam so hard at the end
that when we hit the final slam together, I think you'll agree when I say that this track has one of the greatest endings ever recorded! (the other greatest ending is on Czechoslovakian Salsa
Song..track #9!) "Cosmo Lane" (#6) was a song I wrote while looking out of the window at my San Francisco apartment. There is a little street called Cosmo Lane where the pigeons shit and the
crackheads smoke and whatever else they do. I often would face my keyboard out the window and play while looking at this little street. Soon after I wrote the song a friend of ours in Germany named
his new son "Cosmo". I thought...oh that is pretty cosmic, because how many Cosmo's do you know?! Only one I can think of was on the old TV show "Topper". And now the hotel around the corner has
changed it's name to "Cosmo Hotel"...and last week when I played for first time in Osaka Japan, there Jennifer and I were in a fine hotel on Cosmo Place! So here it is for you..."Cosmo Lane". The
guys think this would be another good one for TV show theme. 
Track #7 "Remembering
Stanley" is my tribute to recently deceased tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, featuring our saxophonist Alex Budman. I never played with him, but our main man Joe Berger worked with Stanley on
the road and mixed his last record. This tune starts out with a quote from J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue in C Minor...I always wanted to do that because it so firmly establishes the tonality of the key
like nothing I have ever heard! The head of the tune is a little bit reminiscent of The Pink Panther. Well ladies and gentlemen...the Pink Panther is dead..and so is Stanley, so here you have it..
"Remembering Stanley"! Some fine tribute playing by Alex on the tenor sax...check it out! 
"Six Year Itch" (#8), is a very strong tune. I was telling the
cats...this song is like an anthem! I could imagine a very hip marching band doing this song someday. I actually wrote it as I completed the first 6 years of my television show (The Jon Hammond Show)
in New York. I had heard about the famous 7 year itch that married couples experience. And then in 1985 I was offered a major contract from then President of Sony Software, John O'Donnell. I'll never
forget how at our meeting on the 48th floor of 9 W. 57th St. in New York at Sony Headquarters he told me, "Jon, we here at Sony believe that you will be tremendously successful within 3 years."..And
then here I was 6 years on the air with my show and I was thinking...well Mr. O'Donnell...I hope you are right but I guess you are off by just a few years! And now I am just about to wrap up the 19th
year of my TV show on Feb. 2nd, 2003 I begin my 20th consecutive year of broadcasting The Jon Hammond Show. Stay tuned, and here it is now for you..."Six Year Itch"! 
"F.P. Blues" (#9) is a song I wrote during my days living in
the famous St. Pauli section of Hamburg Germany by the Reeperbahn. There was a club there I played at which had a very unusual name that I finally shortened to these initials so I will not be blamed
for being a sexist...hey, I didn't name the club! But anyway we have a good friend also with the same initials-Francoise Pujol, a fine musician in Paris...so it can be for Francoise also. A swinging
shuffle blues with some growling tenor sax from Alex...this is a very common kind of feel to what I was playing 7 nights-a-week in Boston's Combat Zone strip clubs back in the '70's "Czechoslovakian
Salsa Song" (#10) has a very interesting story! I wrote this song during one of my frequent visits to play in Prague. Even though now they call it Czech Republic I prefer to think of it still as
Czechoslovakia. I have enjoyed performing and giving seminares (as they are called there) in Prague several times. And in my travels there I have found it very interesting that in this place where
there is a rich history of music and culture, there is a big movement of Salsa Music. Yes that's right...they love Salsa Music in Prague! And so while there I met the main Czechoslovakian salsa cat
and we composed this song with the very memorable melody together. Does anybody out there know the name of the main Czechoslovakian salsa cat? His name is: Saul Salsoskovitch!....cymbal hit please!!
Have a nice Czech beer from Pilsn and enjoy the song! 
"Train Song" (#11) is a melody that
came in to my head while riding on the AMTRAK passenger train across the country. I was looking out the window at the beautiful Colorado Rockies while hearing the melody in my mind. The train is very
close to my heart because I originally came out from Chicago to Berkeley California with my mother and sisters on the "California Zephyr" in the year of 1957..I was 4 years old then and didn't quite
understand the concept of "going to another state"...well, after some days on the Zephyr, I knew what that meant! I often used to like to play by the train tracks as a young cat and even today I
gravitate towards the tracks when I feel like just kicking around. Yesterday we took some photos of the trio and it naturally came in to my mind that we should shoot the pictures down by the Berkeley
train tracks. I used to like to squish pennies on the track and so I put down 3 pennies for good luck before we did our photo shoot. It's not always so easy to find the coins after they are squished
by the train. Then they fly around in the gravel and debris...Jennifer found all 3 coins, so now I know we will have good luck with this record! And so not to make it too complicated as my old friend
Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins would say...I call this one, "Train Song"...swingin' down the tracks! 
Track #12, the final track of this record album is a very
special track for me....this is my tribute to all the victims of the horrible attacks of September 11th 2001. I told Jennifer and all my friends after receiving the terrible news that, "Now is the
time for the musicians to do our work." Because I live in Times Square New York and also my girlfriend works in the airlines and so like everyone else this event has hit very very close to home. In
some ways it brought us all closer together. One week after Sept. 11 we went to Hamburg Germany to visit my close friends there and I was also moved by how deeply our friends in Germany and all over
the world were affected by the tragedy. In many ways we live in a different world today now. The American flags were out in Hamburg and everywhere we went folks! We have a great country and so as
introduction to my composition "Get Back In The Groove" I play some strains of "America The Beautiful" in medley with my song. I wrote G.B.I.T.G. when I was only 15 years old and coming through a
tough time in my life. For all the people out there who are getting back in the groove, this song and album is dedicated to YOU. I'm writing these liner notes on Thanksgiving Day which is a beautiful
American tradition. I have plenty to be thankful for this year and so I would like to thank all of the people who helped me somehow to make this album of my compositions a reality. It's been a long
time coming even though we recorded it in record time. Please read my special thanks and if I somehow omitted your name and you know you belong on the list, please forgive me as my mind gets a little
cloudy the older I get, but I didn't really forget even one person who has helped me on this long journey up to the release of "Hammond's Bolero". Now buy the record and come out to our gigs! Come by
the bandstand and say hi, I'm easy to find...I'll either be behind my HAMMOND organ or strapped in to my EXCELSIOR Accordion. As my friends from Russia and Ukraine say: "Nastarovya!" However you say
it...here's to your health and my romantic music here on this disc comes from our hearts to all people around the world in the international language of instrumental music...in the rhythm of life!
Sincerely yours, Jon Hammond â„¢ "The FINGERS...are the SINGERS!" from Germany/Hamburg That´s a pretty kettle of fish!!! This music will twist you round one´s little finger-it´s so beautiful it took
my breath away - really - take it from me!!!Just what the doctor ordered:-)GREAT! Jon Hammond can bring the house down - yeah! Andreas Breunig Ich würde sie auch gerne mal hören...., die cd! Ich
wohne unweit der "Schnulze" in Hamburg. Vor 2 Jahren auf einem nach-Hause-Weg hörte ich Musik. Sie kam aus der Schnulze. Und sie war gut, verdammt gut! Später erfuhr ich, welch hochkarätigen Musiker
in dieser kleinen Kneipe gespielt haben, einfach unglaublich... Wann bist du wieder in Hamburg, Jon ? When are you back in Hamburg/germany, Jon ? Please, give me a mail ! My Friends here are sometime
in a very, very big wintersleeping, you know... Thanks for your Music !!! And best wishes to a great musician under our sun !!! Andreas from Hamburg Michael August this music is great! Hi, i´m the
artist and designer of this cd-cover, i hear it in every time and this music change my live! it´s absolut wonderful, fantastic! it blows my mind away! Late Rent, ASCAP Audio Portrait, Steve
Rosenfeld, Jon Hammond, Swinging, Funky, Jazz, Blues, Hammond Organ, Bolero, Accordion, Local 802, Musicians Union