Sessioins @ The Vinyl Society is a new weekly series in Detroit’s Paradise Valley, featuring metro-Detroit’s finest jazz musicians. Each Wednesday session features two showtimes, at 6 and 8 p.m. — and there’s never a cover!
Lansing’s Jim Alfredson comes from a musical family. His father earned a living as a professional musician for many years and encouraged Jim’s talents from a very young age. Some of Jim’s earliest memories include pulling on the drawbars of his father’s Hammond B3 at the age of four.
Jim began writing his own songs at the age of eight on a Yamaha organ. A score of synthesizers and multitrack machines followed until he came full circle at 16 and began lusting after the sound of the Hammond organ once again. Jim has immersed himself in the study of the mighty Hammond B3 ever since, dedicated to uncovering new directions within the deep tradition of the instrument.
For 10 years, Jim served as organist and musical director of the highly successful, award-winning rhythm & blues band Root Doctor (1999 – 2009) producing three CDs for the band. In 2000, he formed the jazz trio organissimo, which has released five critically acclaimed CDs and a DVD in the intervening years. In 2009 Jim released a very limited edition solo CD dedicated to the memory of his father called In Memorandom.
From 2010 to 2014, Jim served as the keyboardist and primary background vocalist in the touring band for blues singer Janiva Magness. He toured nationally and internationally with that band. He is featured on Ms. Magness’ Alligator Records release Stronger For It as well as her self-released album Original.
“… Jim Alfredson … is a remarkable organist who seamlessly synthesizes several generations of keyboard influences ” ~ Downbeat
In 2012, Jim successfully crowd-funded the organissimo CD “Dedicated“, released in January of 2013. In October 2013, Jim released his a solo project entitled Jim Alfredson’s Dirty Fingers. It is a tribute to jazz organ great Big John Patton.
Jim is a Hammond-Suzuki endorsed artist a by Hammond-Suzuki, Casio and Neo Instruments.
