Hard Music by Banana Hammond

Banana Hammond is an organ quartet made up of four of Portland’s most explosive jazz instrumentalists. Their original music pulses with a swagger that’s as unrestrained as it is precise, pushing audiences to lean in and revel in the ride. Joe Bagg commands the Hammond B3 with a deep, swelling groove that grips the listener from the first note. On tenor saxophone, Tim Willcox brings a bold and muscular sound, stretching his lines to exhilarating lengths. Guitarist Ryan Meagher darts fluidly across the neck, blending wit with raw intensity in ways that feel both sly and subversive. Beneath it all, drummer Charlie Doggett lays down a relentless foundation that keeps the band surging forward. Banana Hammond thrives on the tension between tongue-in-cheek humor and serious musicianship, proving that jazz can be both deeply playful and unapologetically hard-hitting.

PJCE Records is a grassroots recording label documenting the wide variety of original music being created by Portland area jazz composers and improvisers. We aim to provide an outlet to encourage the dissemination of new music in the area as well as fostering community within the jazz and improvised music scene in Portland. We release one album per month digitally and/or in limited CD pressings.

pjce.org