Lyman Woodard

Who is Lyman Woodard?

Lyman Woodard was a Detroit-based jazz organist noted for fusing his music with Latin and Afro-Cuban-inspired rhythms. From the late '60s, Woodard recorded with a number of Motown acts, and served as musical director for Martha and the Vandellas. But seminal releases – like his 1975 cult-classic Saturday Night Special – and the legacy of his namesake outfit, the Lyman Woodard Organization, helped define Motor City's lesser-known jazz-funk heritage.

Before establishing the Lyman Woodard Organization, he comprised a jazz trio with drummer Melvin Davis and guitarist Dennis Coffey; the ensemble made its reputation playing numerous shows at a nightclub called Cobb's Corner. In 1968, Woodard and Melvin Davis recorded the album "Hair And Thangs" with Dennis Coffey. Although the album was released as a solo project by Dennis Coffey in 1969, a single containing "It's Your Thing" and "River Rouge" was released with the artist as "Dennis Coffey and the Lyman Woodard Trio". In 1979, Woodard returned to Cobb's Corner with the Organization to record his magnum opus, Don't Stop the Groove, for the Corridor label.

In March 2009, Wax Poetics Records reissued a limited pressing of Saturday Night Special as a double LP on 180-gram vinyl.