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) 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 with Cab Calloway and Fats Waller, among others. He also appeared in films such as The Gene Krupa Story, and played on records supporting the likes of Jack Teagarden and T-Bone Walker. Morgan came from a musical family; Sam Morgan and Isaiah Morgan were both bandleaders and trumpeters, and Andrew Morgan was a jazz reedist. Morgan started on clarinet, then learned baritone sax, tuba, and bass. He took lessons with Simon Marrero around 1919, then