Lenny Dee – Double Dee-Light (2CD) (2006)

Lenny Dee – Double Dee-Light – Dee-Most Dee-Lightful, Dee-Licious and Dee-Lirious

CD Duration: 116.20 / Year: 2006

2006 double CD release by the late Lenny Dee (who died in February 2006). Contains 48 of his most famous tracks (Mono)

Lenny Dee was a versatile organist who enjoyed a Top 20 hit with “Plantation Boogie” and went on to record over 50 LPs. He was best known for being able to make his organ sound like a wide variety of other musical instruments.  Here on CD for the first time since their original release on vinyl, Lenny plays some of his most requested numbers and plays them in a manner which is different from any other performer. This CD is a must for Hammond Organ enthusiasts, beautifully packaged & wonderfully remastered using the latest digital processing technology.

Disc One (Running Time 58.44):
Plantation Boogie
Laura
Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby
Birth Of The Blues
Little Brown Jug
September Song
Ballin’ The Jack
Exactly Like You
Siboney
Sweet Georgia Brown
World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
Donkey Serenade
Coquette
I’m Beginning To See The Light
Chinatown My Chinatown
Charmaine
Five Foot Two Eyes Of Blue
Out Of Nowhere
Caravan
That’s My Weakness Now
This Ole House
Five O’Clock Whistle
Twelfth Street Rag
Good Night Sweetheart

Disc Two (Running Time 57.36):
Delicious
Fan Tango
Stompin’ At The Savoy
Diane
Honky Tonk Train Blues
Alabamy Bound
Tarragona
At Sundown (When Love Is Calling Me Home)
Jersey Bounce
Hawaiian War Chant (Ta Hu Wa Hu Wai)
What Is This Thing Called Love
Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye
Jumpin’ On The Organ
Avalon
Somebody Stole My Gal
Hot Foot Boogie
Josephine
Way Down Yonder In New Orleans
Oh You Beautiful Doll
Indian Love Call
Ain’t She Sweet
Yodelin’ Organ
Let Me Call You Sweetheart
China Boy

Alan Ashton’s Organised Keyboards Review (from ORGAN1st Magazine Issue 31):

Turning back the clock again, it was no less than 50 years ago when I first became acquainted with the extraordinary sound of the Hammond organ played by Lenny Dee. It was the pioneering era of the LP recording when I first bought DEE-LIGHTFUL on Brunswick LAT 8072, subtitled Organ Solos with a beat. The year was 1954 and I was a lowly paid Leading Aircraftsmen stationed in some god-forsaken camp miles from anywhere, but my meagre pay at least enabled me to layout 39 shillings for the recording that was to make me forever a fan of this unique artist: an artist who made Ethel Smith sound like a beginner!. That LP, together with three subsequent releases DEE-MOST / DEE-LIRIOUS and DEE- LICIOUS now all appear on one 48 track double CD appropriately titled DOUBLE DEE-LIGHT (JASCD 427) You want organ with a beat? Then there is no finer collection than assembled here. So why has it taken so long for these recordings to again see the light of day? The short answer is that Lenny sold all his rights to the Master tapes many years ago, and whichever Company now owns them seemed never bothered about re-issuing them. However, at the end of 50 years the recordings pass into the Public Domain, and Jasmine Records, an English recording company were only too happy to make this superb compilation.

The sad part is that Lenny Dee passed away only a matter of weeks before the CD hit the High Street shops. The hi-fi quality of these recordings is unquestionable but equally unquestionable is the importance of the mysterious factor known as the Dee quality. It is this unanalysable but unsurpassable combination of tone and technique, of sound and substance, which characterise especially those that make up his earliest recordings. Lenny Dee did not start his music career as an organist. At seven he was playing the banjo; his next instrument was the piano-accordion. He was unsure what kind of a musician he would be when he joined the Navy, and when he got out of it he enrolled at the Conservatory of Music in Chicago. It was there on a G.I. grant, that Lenny took his first lessons at the organ and he knew that this was the instrument for him. Soon he was appearing professionally, and it was not long before he was booked at some of the most prominent hotels in the South. A weekly network made a bid for him; he also played at Nashville’s Plantation Club. His contract with Brunswick records gave him world publicity, and his first recordings were immediate hits. The one that rocketed him to prominence was none other than PLANTATION BOOGIE which entered the charts in February 1955 and remained there for 15 weeks. With a dynamic growling sound, the likes you’ve never heard before, there is no finer track to lead the listener into a world of Hammond organ playing that is full of surprises and is uniquely his very own. Never has the organ shown such vigour and versatility.

Dotted throughout the tracks you’ll come across a couple more Dee originals in the form of JUMPIN’ ON THE ORGAN and HOT FOOT BOOGIE. Listen out too for the fun he has with LITTLE BROWN JUG, imitating the sound of man blowing down an empty jug: YODELIN’ ORGAN has the echos bouncing off the imaginary Swiss Alps: HONKY TONK TRAIN BLUES and ALABAMY BOUND are carried along with a pulsating railroad rhythm: the donkey in DONKEY SERENADE is urged to keep in step: the ghost of Gene Krupa reappears in CARAVAN and if there is a cleaner, toe-tapping and more exciting version of 12th STREET RAG then I have yet to hear it. Apart from one track, FAN-TANGO where the end has been chopped off, whoever was entrusted with mastering the tracks from original LP copies, has done a super job. I make no excuse for the lengthy praise of this CD but in a world that is so full of electronic ‘orchestral’ sounds, it’s a breath of fresh air to turn back the clock and hear an artist who had such command of a Hammond organ and what’s more, made it fun to listen to. That man was ‘Mr Entertainment’ Lenny Dee.