Cory Henry put his hands on this Hammond Organ just to take it for a little ride.
But what he didn’t know was that his performance would have such a huge effect on the crowd around him.
If you look it up, the Hammond Organ is a popular model of electric organ.
These organs are considered to be the most successful electric organs ever created. When they were first sold, they served as a cheaper alternative for churches and musicians looking to keep their costs down.
The Hammond Organ model X-K5, in particular, is one of the best of the newer models of the Hammond Heritage series.
Henry sat down to demonstrate his skills on the instrument at the National Association of Music Merchants expo in 2017.
The NAMM show was held in Anaheim, California. It is an annual celebration that celebrates new music products, and where industry professionals from around the world gather to see the state-of-the-art in musical technology. Though it goes without saying, it also means that there are plenty of excellent players at these events who love to show off their skills.
And Henry was one of them!
He took a seat in front of the Hammond X-K5 just to get the feel of the instrument. When he decided to play the organ, some people couldn’t resist stopping to listen for a little while. If you can’t recognize what he’s playing, it’s actually a cover of one of Stevie Wonder’s songs from his 1974 Fulfillingness’ First Finale album, “Boogie On Reggae Woman.”
Music product enthusiasts who walked past by him halted to jam with the jazzy and boogie tunes that Henry played on that organ! Everyone was so entertained while watching him play—it was like he got so lost in the moment that he was just having fun like a child with a new toy! He put each of his hands on both levels of the keyboard, with one was playing the bass notes and the other pressing out the beautiful lead melody.
Although he seemed like any other musician, Henry has actually had a pretty awesome musical career.
For those who don’t know, Henry is a 32-year old singer-songwriter, pianist, organist and producer. He launched his first independent release, Art of Love, after deciding to try a career as a solo artist (as he was formerly a member of the acclaimed jazz ensemble Snarky Puppy).
His musical style is influenced by many different genres, including gospel music, blues and jazz. He won a Grammy award for Best R&B Performance in 2014 as well as Grammy for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2015!
Needless to say, the YouTube community loved the video of him playing the Hammond.
The video was posted by YouTube user Phil Curry.
Since then, it has amassed some seven million views and had 58,000 hitting the like button. Tons of people were mesmerized with Henry’s fast hands and his amazing showmanship on what was essentially just noodling around! Although his playing was impressive all on its own, his control over all the switches and different levels of the instrument are equally impressive—after all, some of the YouTube commenters said they couldn’t even figure out what Henry was doing to make those sounds!
Congratulations to Cory Henry on this truly impressive live performance! Be sure to watch the whole thing in the link below:
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