
Sit down and chat with Delvon Lamarr and you soon discover that he is a modest man. Mild-mannered and soft-spoken, he has a slight drawl in his voice that suggests origins further south than South Seattle. Wearing jeans and a black t-shirt, small dreadlocks peering out from under a large beanie, he exudes humility. See him rolling his Hammond B3 into a club and you might assume he’s a roadie.
But watch him play that Hammond B3 and it quickly becomes clear that there’s something special about Delvon Lamarr. The fluidity of his feet on the foot pedals, his left hand handling the walking bass lines, and his right hand oscillating between comping and soloing – he’s like a well-rehearsed chamber ensemble unto himself. You might see a few lead sheets scattered atop his B3, but he doesn’t seem to pay them much attention. Observe this for a few minutes and you might mistakenly assume Lamarr had worked painstakingly to develop this ability.
You could assume a lot of things about Delvon Lamarr. A friendly guy interrupted our interview and offered to play whatever Lamarr wanted on the jukebox. “What do you want? You want some Miles? You want some Coltrane? What do you want?”
“Led Zeppelin.”
“You want Led?”
“Led Zeppelin – one of my favorite bands in the world.”
It was a mild Wednesday evening when I met with Lamarr at The Station in Ballard in advance of a show with a group called the Happy Trio, featuring Lamarr on the B3, sax master Skerik, and drummer Tarik Abouzied. I assumed this was a steady group. Lamarr informed me they had never all played together before.
Delvon Lamarr was born in 1978 and grew up in a house where his mother listened to gospel and blues while he and his older brother spun hip-hop and Van Halen records. One day, Lamarr’s brother handed him a cassette tape of John Coltrane’s music. He heard “My Favorite Things” and asked his mom to buy him a saxophone.
In junior high, he played in the band, cycling through a number instruments before settling primarily on trumpet and drums, which remained his focus until his early twenties. That’s when he began a regular Wednesday night gig subbing on drums for another highly regarded Seattle B3 player, Joe Doria.
“Ever since I saw Joe play that organ I was hooked,” Lamarr recalled in a deadpan serious tone. “I remember seeing the organ in church, but I had never seen anyone play it like that.”
The way he set up when he drummed for Doria afforded him a good view. So, he watched him. Intently enough that he seems to have absorbed all the basics. One night when another drummer showed up, Lamarr asked Doria if he could play the organ. Doria said okay.
“We played a blues. And I sat down and played that blues like I had been playing organ already. I don’t know where it came from. I basically watched Joe do it every week and I learned how to do by watching him. Walking bass lines and everything.”
He quit trumpet and drums “cold turkey” and never looked back. Now he’s an important player on the local jazz scene and is gaining recognition throughout the Northwest and beyond. In addition to maintaining his own trio, Rippin’ Chicken, he keeps plenty busy with saxophonist Kareem Kandi, who referred to him as “a gift to the music scene and the world.”
Lamarr draws inspiration from B3 greats like Jimmy Smith, Wilber Ware, and Jimmy McGriff. But he doesn’t study them the way most jazz musicians study the masters. He listens. He absorbs. And he allows it to come through in his playing.
And, aside from Led Zeppelin, he’s also a big fan of System of a Down and hopes to one day work out a Hammond B3 arrangement for one of their songs.
Who’d have assumed that?