Music
Lyman Woodard
1942–2009 · jazz organist, bandleader
Detroit-based Hammond organist, Martha and the Vandellas' musical director, whose Lyman Woodard Organization made the 1975 jazz-funk cult album Saturday Night Special.
- Born
- Died
Owosso, Michigan
aged 66- Detroit years
- 1960s–2000s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
From the late 1960s Woodard was a Detroit fixture, recording with Motown acts and serving as musical director for Martha and the Vandellas. With drummer Melvin Davis and guitarist Dennis Coffey he formed a trio that played many nights at Cobb's Corner, a Cass Corridor bar, and in 1968 the three recorded Hair and Thangs, released under Coffey's name; a single credited to Dennis Coffey and the Lyman Woodard Trio paired "It's Your Thing" with "River Rouge." His own band, the Lyman Woodard Organization, mixed jazz, funk and Afro-Cuban and Latin rhythms, and its 1975 album Saturday Night Special became a sought-after cult record, reissued on vinyl in 2009. In 1979 he returned to Cobb's Corner to record Don't Stop the Groove for the local Corridor label, and his 1985 album Dedicacion featured a young violinist, Regina Carter. He released a live set from the 1996 Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival. He died in February 2009; a memorial concert a year later was released as Lyman Woodard Organization Orchestra.
Highlights
- Musical director for Martha and the Vandellas
- Trio with Dennis Coffey and Melvin Davis at Cobb's Corner
- Saturday Night Special (1975), a jazz-funk cult classic
- Don't Stop the Groove (1979), recorded live at Cobb's Corner
- Dedicacion (1985) featuring Regina Carter
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · late 1960s–1979
Cobb's Corner
Closed
Cass Corridor bar where Woodard's trio with Dennis Coffey played regularly and where he recorded Don't Stop the Groove in 1979.
Performed here · 1996
African World Festival
Main site of the Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival, where Woodard's 1996 live album was recorded.