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
Al Morgan (musician) with Louis Armstrong in "Going Places" (1938), and in "The Gene Krupa Story" (1959). In the 1930s, Morgan led his own band and played as a sideman with Fats Waller, Les Hite, Zutty Singleton, Louis Jordan, and Sabby Lewis. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Morgan played extensively with Buddy Banks in a duo. Morgan also appears on record with Chu Berry, Coleman Hawkins, Don Byas, Jack Teagarden, Jay McShann, Red Allen, and T-Bone Walker. Al Morgan (musician) Albert Morgan (August 19, 1908 in New Orleans – April 14, 1974 in Los Angeles) was an American jazz double-bassist, who played