Lou Bennett was born May 18, 1926 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and first learned to play the piano before switching to the organ. It wasn’t until hearing Jimmy Smith play, that Bennett chose to stop playing bebop piano and make this instrument his professional calling.

Lou toured the U.S. with an organ trio between 1957 and 1959, and then moved to Paris in 1960. There he recorded and performed at the Blue Note with Jimmy Gourley, Kenny Clarke, Philip Catherine, Franco Manzecchi and Rene Thomas. He returned to America only once, for the 1964 Newport…