Electronic musical instrument was designed to be a lower-cost alternative to a pipe organ for church music, musicians soon discovered that the Hammond was an excellent instrument for blues and jazz; indeed, an entire genre of music developed built around this instrument, known as the organ trio (typically Hammond organ, drums, and a third instrument, either saxophone or guitar). The first commercially manufactured synthesizer was the Novachord, built by the Hammond Organ Company from 1938 to 1942, which offered 72-note polyphony using 12 oscillators driving monostable-based divide-down circuits, basic envelope control and resonant low-pass filters. The instrument featured 163 vacuum tubes and weighed
Artie Schroeck was 8, he was noticed by jazz drummer Gene Krupa when the boys were performing in Atlantic City, and Krupa incorporated the boys' work into his own band, as well as that of jazz trumpeter Louis Prima. Harold eventually left the act at the age of 24 to raise his own family, but Artie continued with his music, and also began arranging songs for the bands that he was working with. In Las Vegas, Schroeck ran into jazz musician Lionel Hampton while they were both in a piano store and they started an impromptu jam session. Hampton immediately invited Schroeck