Jimmy Smith ignited a jazz revolution on an instrument associated at the time with ballparks, despite never playing one until the age of 28.
His legendary multi-part technique on the Hammond B-3 organ, playing bass with the foot pedals and Charlie Parker-like single-line passages with his right hand, shook up the traditional trio as co-players could explore new roles. Yet, while the consensus is Smith's playing is a jazz landmark, his recordings fall short of such acclaim.
Not a single album is listed among the 200 most important recordings in the book Essential Jazz Library by New York Times critic Ben Ratcliff. The Penguin Guide To Jazz On CD notes "it was disappointing...to hear how quickly Smith's albums become formulaic." Rolling Stone calls much of his late career work "substandard."
The joy in building a Smith collection is one can almost always count on his worthwhile albums being fun, fast, and spiritual blues romps with lots of his patented tonal color.
The drawback is... pretty much the same thing.
There's a sameness to much of his work, and many of his "outside the box" efforts into genres such as fusion and soundtracks are less than stellar. Adding to this discouragement is a number of his best early albums are out of print.
Still, it's hard to dispute the more than 100 albums in Smith's discography feature not only a rich collection of commercially popular music, but works of exceptional artistry.
Other players such as Count Basie experimented with the organ as far back as the 1930s, but Smith pioneered the fusion of R&B, gospel and jazz in addition to his unique playing style. He was an enormous success almost immediately and, following a commercial and critical lull during the 1970s and '80s, rebounded with several quality late-career recordings and saw his work influence artists from organist Joey DeFrancesco to hip-hop and jam bands incorporating digital samples of Smith's playing into their performances.
He died February 8, 2005, in his sleep at the age of 76 at his Scottsdale, Arizona, home.
"Jimmy was one of the greatest and most innovative musicians of our time," wrote DeFrancesco in a message at his Web site dated Feb. 9, 2005, six days before the release of Legacy, his second album recorded with Smith. "I loved the man and I love the music. He was my idol, my mentor and my friend."
Smith was born in 1928 in Norristown, Pa., near Philadelphia, to a musically inclined family that saw him playing piano and bass as a youth. This combination proved an essential element of his one-man- band approach on the organ. He joined the Navy at age 15 to escape his hometown and after World War II studied at several Philadelphia music schools. He subsequently played piano for local R&B groups during the 1940s and 50s.
He explains his development on the organ in an oft-quoted interview:
"I got my organ from a loan shark and had it shipped to the warehouse," he said. "I stayed in that warehouse, I would say, six months to a year. I would do just like the guys do—take my lunch, then I'd go and set down at this beast. Nobody showed my anything, man, so I had to fiddle around with my stops."
His New York debut came in 1956 with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and the organist was an almost immediate hit.
Smith's early recordings were so successful Blue Note set up a special division to develop the genre he formed. He typically recorded numerous projects every year for the label between the late 1950s and his departure in 1962, including career highlights such as 1957s Groovin At Small's Paradise and 1960s Back At The Chicken Shack, perhaps his best-known album. Many are also noteworthy for all-star rosters of co-players such as guitarist Kenny Burrell, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and saxophonists Stanley Turrentine and Jackie McLean.
His association with Verve Records beginning in 1962 saw both an expansion and limitation of his work. Among the most successful were a pair of albums recorded with guitarist Wes Montgomery and 1962's Bashin': The Unpredictable Jimmy Smith, with "Walk On The Wild Side" from the latter album making pop charts as a single.
However, new formats such as big bands often featured something other than the lengthy blowing sessions best suited to his strength of building up passages over time. Many also sought crossover audiences—toying, for instance, with show tunes and hard rock—and are frequently considered weak points of his discography.
