Soul Organ Master

The man some called the fifth Beatle gets a hep collection compiling the best of his two 1965 long players. More than half of the songs here hail from Billy Preston’s 1965 debut The Most Exciting Organ Ever. Soul Organ Master opens with the go-go grit of his Hammond B-3, followed by some jazzy mod grooves on “The Octopus” and the slow waltzing “Soul Meetin’.” The swinging bottom end of these numbers showcase Preston’s then groundbreaking use of bass pedal manipulation — a technique he's credited for pioneering on the Hammond organ. The remaining songs come from Early Hits of ’65, a collection of covers and singles that were culled from the same recording sessions that yielded Preston’s debut. He gives Smoky Robinson and Ronald White’s “My Girl” a mellow beachy cool. And Larry Banks and Milton Bennett’s “Go Now” retains the suited British Invasion pomp that an early incarnation of the Moody Blues gave it, albeit with a more soulful sound this time around. But it’s the piano pounding, keyboard grinding undulations of Junior Walker & The All Stars’ “Shotgun” that make for what is easily the most danceable song on Soul Organ Master.