"There are a lot of fabulous jazz organists around, but most of them play Hammond B-3," says Mehta. "And I asked around to people in the jazz community, and they all said, 'You got Trudy right in Philly. Ask Trudy.' Trudy grew up in the church, so she knows her way around a pipe organ much better than, let's say, a Dr. John or John Medeski or Joey DeFrancesco. And she's from right around the corner."

CENTER PIECE: Pitts gives the Cooper's 7,000 pipes a test run.

Trudy Pitts was born in South Philly to a mother who had recently migrated from New Orleans, bringing that city's musical influences with her. "I was born into a house with a piano," says Pitts. "My mother and my two sisters were musicians and very early on, at 6 years old, I decided that I needed to be a part of that."

She began taking private lessons, sponsored by her church, and later attended the Philadelphia Musical Academy, which eventually grew into the University of the Arts. At the time, she studied classical music, her first love and a passion to this day.

Her introduction to jazz came during the bebop era, when her older sisters would bring home 78s by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. "I was still studying my classics and having to spend many hours at the piano," she recalls, "and I was hearing jazz on the other side of my ear."

A Trudy Pitts CD could feature a Monk tune next to a Schumann piece next to a gospel standard. "If your spirit is open," she says, "there's no separation into different genres of music. There's different feelings, but with your commitment to being a musician, I think it's important to be able to merge part of yourself into whatever it is you want to explore."

In the 1950s she received a call from Bill "Mr. C" Carney, a jazz percussionist and singer (later founder of the Clef Club) who at the time led an organ combo featuring a young John Coltrane on tenor and Tootie Heath on drums. Shirley Scott had just vacated the organ seat, and Mr. C wanted another female organist to take her place. At the time, Pitts had never played jazz, but she impressed enough at the audition to win the position on an interim basis.

She was soon replaced by a more experienced player, but continued to pursue jazz on her own, with Mr. C acting as her manager and eventually, her husband. (Over the phone from their West Oak Lane home today, Mr. C can be heard in the background shouting reminders to discuss one project or another during our interview.) When the position became vacant again, she was ready to take it on. "And then I went back with him and with the group, different by this time because by then Trane had gone on to be with Miles and the rest of that is history. And when I came back to his group to take that organ seat again, the rest of that is history."

So on Friday, Trudy Pitts will open the Kimmel's latest season by becoming the first jazz artist to tackle the new organ, opening the show for singer Nancy Wilson. She has been acclimating herself to the organ for several weeks now, attempting to forge a spontaneous, improvisational jazz feel from the slow, imposing organ.

"I had to try to develop a relationship with the organ," Pitts says. "All organs are different. If your intention is to attempt to get a whole jazz feeling and orientation on a pipe organ, than you must rearrange your whole attitude, your whole approach."

She admits it's a challenge but is quick to refer to the opportunity as a "bright moment," an oft-repeated phrase for Pitts, to the point of becoming the sign-off for her e-mails. Looking back over her career to this point, she says, "All of it is really seriously bright moments. It's been a commitment, it's been a dedication and it's a MUST, with capital letters, that I do music. And it's been that way all my life. I'm married, I've had children, I've done all the things that a wife and a mother has to do, plus I've been able somehow to muster up the strength and courage to do music. I'm thankful for all of that."

(s_brady@citypaper.net)