LINDA DACHTYL, Full Steam Ahead

Decades after she first heard organ music popping from the hits of Santana and Three Dog Night, veteran Hammond B3 master Linda Dachtyl is a long treasured mainstay on the Columbus OH jazz scene, who, when she’s not burning up clubs with guitarist Don Hales, her drummer husband Cary Dachtyl and the trio’s numerous ensemble lineups, is also a proficient drummer who grooves in the indie band Roxy Janes.

Closing in on 20 years since her debut album Blue Bop, Linda’s steaming toward the future full throttle on the perfectly named Full Steam Ahead, a funky, hard-swinging, alternately silky smooth and hard-chugging collection that marks her fifth release on B3 legend Tony Monaco’s Chicken Coup Records. Perhaps with the exception of a tender, reflective take on Monk’s “Round Midnight,” this is a fun, boisterous party album, created to pay homage to some of the B3 greats who have inspired her own journey.

Those homages start with the adventurous, fast-boppin’ opening jam “Illumination,” a tribute to organ master Charles Eaerland featuring a snazzy trumpet solo by Ben Huntoon, continues on the Hales-composed mid-tempo strut “The Outsider” (a nod to 70’s jazz-rock) and reaches a wild, surreal creative peak on “Full Steam Ahead,” a nearly nine minute blast of tempo-shifting locomotive energy and rhythmic twists and turns that artfully fuses James Moody’s “Last Train from Overbrook” with Gene Ludwig’s “Back on the Track,” complete with a closing train whistle.

While trad jazz fans will enjoy immersing in the sultry swing of “April in Paris” featuring lead melody tradeoffs by Hales and saxophonist Mark Donavan, pop music inclined hipsters will most appreciate the 60’s tinged “Lava Lamp Suite,” an easy flowing, Latin-spiced mood piece that shifts brisky from Francis Lai’s “A Man and a Woman” to “My Little Boat” and wraps with a subtle coda nod to Burt Bacharach’s “Promises Promises.” These are just a handful of the great delights Linda shares on her latest celebration of all things B-3!