There is something I call “The Analog.” Not that there is anything wrong with digital. What you are I are doing right now is digital and it has it’s place and time.

The analog is rooted in the old school. An old gauge that sweeps and might not be 100% right but is probably pretty close. A mechanical device, of or pertaining to a mechanism that represents data by measurement of a continuous physical variable, as voltage or pressure.

The famous analog keyboards that make up a crux of the tunes on this site:

Hammond Organ – B3 & variants – “The Hammond” or anything mentioning “B3″
The Wurlitzer Electric Jazz Piano (what Ray Charles played) – “The Wurlitzer”
The Fender Rhodes Electric Jazz Piano (what Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea played) – “The Rhodes”
The Hohnet Clavinet – “The Clav” or “The Clavinet” – Funky!

and a few others but these take the cake though…

A good honorable mention is the Moog, the first electric synthesizer which was also analog…

Now, some samples (click play to listen):




- Bill Withers, Use Me Up. Exclusively using the clav…

- The Disco Track 9 is a song off the Boogie Nights soundtrack affectionately known as “track 9.” The main instrument is the clavinet once it gets into the breakdown. Sorry, this is a long, very repetitive song but good stuff… The echo-ey “Riders on the Storm” sounding instrument is the Rhodes piano as well.

- Soulive, Uncle Junior. This is a good Hammond Organ-heavy song… There are only three guys playing; the organ player is also playing the bass.

- Chick Corea, Fickle Funk. A good Fender Rhodes-heavy song by Chick Corea…

- Beastie Boys, Namaste – Good example of the Wurlitzer in action…

– Hugo Montenegro and His Orchestra – Moog Power.mp3

- And finally, a song that ties them all together… Chameleon by Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters. It was common practice to have some or all of them and play them all. Sometimes 2 at a time, one hand on each such as Herbie Hancock does. If you listen carefully, you can catch them all in there. Anything really really “scratchy” or echo-ie like the sound of a rubber band is the Moog. The solo at about 8 minutes in is him on the Rhodes. It is really hard to pick them all out, so fear not…

* * *

Now some video:

Here’s a Wurlitzer demo some dude made off youtube:
( You’ll notice some similarities between it and the Rhodes as well… )

And here is a youtube video of a Rhodes in action. He’s just showing off a pedal there but it doesn’t change much (an effect he’s messing with called “vibrato”).

And finally, here is a live version of Herbie Hancock playing Chamelon Live in 1974. I found a bunch of copies on YouTube but never found a full length one. I uploaded this full length version that used to be on YouTube (so I was wondering where it went) but they shot it down because it’s too long (about 14 mintues) so I uploaded it to Vimeo.

When I first saw this, it blew my mind… Enjoy…


Herbie Hancock – Chameleon Live 1974 from Andre Shoumatoff on Vimeo.