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
Gene Leis in Santa Maria, California on March 15, 1993, at the age of 73. Gene Leis Gene Leis (April 19, 1920 – March 15, 1993) was an American jazz guitarist, teacher, bandleader, composer, producer and entrepreneur. He was known primarily for his publications and recorded guitar courses in the 1960s. Leis was born into a musical family in Sedgwick, Kansas, near Witchita. His parents had a family band and played at local dances, weddings, and other events. When he was nine, he joined the family group on mandolin, an instrument whose neck was small enough for him to play comfortably. In