The Leslie Speaker

I often wondered if you will be like me and listen to music or an instrument differently once you hear the story behind it.

Case in point: do you hear the Leslie speaker played alongside the Hammond B3 in hits such as "Green Onions"? Once you learn a bit more about Don Leslie and his passion for pipe organs, a sound he wanted to reproduce electronically, you may hear those sounds with a better understanding as to why Don used the Doppler effect by spinning his speaker cones to provide a more lively and engaging experience.

Take a listen to a segment from Don Leslie's Oral History interview and then re-listen to the Leslie Speaker in action and tell me if you heard it differently?

Dan Del Fiorentino
NAMM Music Historian
dand@namm.org