Hello,
I'm Ondra Pivec, I'm 22 years old, I live in Praha and this is the story how I got to the Hammond organ. Like many other organ players I began with the classical piano as a kid. At the age of 15, I started to be more into jazz, so I formed my own quintet, still playing piano. Two years later I had the opportunity to join an already well established trio formed by one of the most respected guitar players here in Praha. He had just finished a record with the Italian virtuoso Alberto Marsico and he needed some local guy to keep the project running. I had no clue about playing bass on the organ, but I had a lot of Jimmy Smith records at home, so I said yes and went to practise. I had a little keyboard with drawbars, that could simulate Hammond sound and the manual was splittable, which pretty much set me in the ballpark.
For the first year it sounded like a crappy bass player playing along with an even worse organist, but as time went by I was improving my chops along with the sound and instrument quality. A year ago I left the trio and started my own band called ORGANIC quartet. We do our original music and in February 2006 a British label Cube-Metier released our debut album, entitled "Don't get Ideas". At this very moment I'm finishing my music for my second record, which will hopefully be released early next year. So this is it, folks, hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading and have a good time.
 
Ondra Pivec
 
Ondra has also produced an audio file speaking about his way to the Hammond organ. Click the PLAY button to listen to Ondra !