Alley Cat - Bent Fabricius-Bjerre - Berlin Reed Organ

[Cheat2Win6]

Steak and eggs and eggs and steak

[ANDREWLEONARDSMITH]

Is the berlin reed organ of German origin and if so is it Pressure rather than vacumn?

[Principal16]

Haha! This was great!!!! :P Thank you!

[Zylstra555]

And here, I thought I had seen all of your videos.

I've been trying to find the music for this so I can begin to learn it for theater organ. Now I know what it will sound like on reed organ as well!

Thanks for sharing!

[007Greebo]

Absolutely brilliant! Keep up the good work.

[bakbrianbak]

You just made my day. Greate work. Bent Fabricius-Bjerre did well, when he composed that song and you played it well :) In danish: Skide godt!

[jkmek99]

You make the reed organ rock!!!

[MasonHamlinOrgans]

How do you mike the organ to get such a great sound from the sub bass? You are a very sly musician. The Berlin, a make I have no familiarity with, must have made some fine instruments, so it's too bad they are not better known.

[rodneyjantzi]

Even when the sub bass was jammed full of a mouse nest, you could still feel the keyboard rumble from the bass. It always had a very rich bass to it, Im not certain, but maybe the way the bass is mounted on the resonance boxes have something to do with it? The materials used are very similar to Dominion.

The mics used were just external condenser mics, placed about 12 feet away from the organ, 3 feet off the floor, no special processing was used.

[JanesCalamity]

Awesome! I love that. I wish I had an organ like that to play. How cool. I love the sound of that.

My grandma used to play that song for my brother and I on her vacuum tube electric organ.

[rodneyjantzi]

Thank you very much! I was surprised when I first played it on this organ how it sounded - almost like a carousel band organ. My mom used to play this song for our family since I was quite small, ah the memories...

Rodney :)

[uwemommens]

I love your interpretation more than the original. Who is to blame?

[rodneyjantzi]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! It is far from the original Bent Fabric jazz style version, but doing it on a reed organ adds a new dimension of fun to these old organs.

[cecilspianos]

What an amazing organ and performance! You do a great job showing off the possibilities of reed organs and that they are capable of making great music. So few people (including myself) do these instruments justice but you really bring them to life. I played this for my 2 daughters (ages 5 and 1) and they both loved it! They both smiled, clapped and danced around. The 5 year old made me play it five times in a row before we could do anything else! Keep up the good work!

[rodneyjantzi]

Your comment has brought a big smile to my face, thank you very much! That must have been so cute to see them dance around. Give your daughters a big hug for me :)

[HengistMaxwell]

Wonderful performance, as always! I agree with JamesEcliffe: How do you manage glissando on that organ with the treble coupler on? Did cleaning the organ make it that smooth?

Either way though, that was terrific!

[rodneyjantzi]

Thanks! 

I had restored and adjusted the coupler and keyboard bushings, so it does play quite easily with the couplers on, however, you wouldnt want to do too many glissandos if you wanted to keep the skin on your fingers or thumb. :)

[JamesEncliffe]

Totally wonderful!! How on earth do you glissando with the couplers on? LOL u must have bionic fingers!!

[rodneyjantzi]

Bionic fingers? LOL :) I like that! I actually use my thumbnail - the very thing that hinders playing Bach works for glissandos. Thanks!