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Jimmy Smith: The Sermon and Organ Grinder Swing
by David Adler
These two albums were recorded nearly ten years apart, the first for Blue Note and the second for Verve. The First, The Sermon, contains only three tracks, presented here with no editing and no alternate takes. While it is certainly a stellar example of Jimmy Smith's concept, it's even more novel as a document of the fledgling careers of Lee Morgan, George Coleman, and the overlooked tenor player Tina Brooks. The title track is a spirited blues jam ...
Continue ReadingJimmy Smith: Organ Grinder Swing
by C. Andrew Hovan
It was through his early work on Blue Note that the world-shattering innovations of Jimmy Smith first reached the record buying public. Pure be-bop was the order of the day and aside from a special guest or two thrown in from time to time, Smith worked mainly in a trio context. Then the organist left for Verve Records and producer Creed Taylor broadened Smith's horizons by recording him with large ensembles, not to mention getting him to add a bluesy ...
Continue ReadingJimmy Smith: Root Down
by David Adler
Much of the music on Jimmy Smith’s Root Down seems tailor-made for sampling by today’s hip-hop and electronica artists. Small wonder that the Beastie Boys had a hit in 1994 with their rap version of the title track. On this 1972 reissue, three of the album’s original tracks are restored to their full, unedited length and a sluggish alternate take of “Root Down (and Get It)" is also included.Although this was supposed to be Smith’s foray into hard-edged ...
Continue ReadingJimmy Smith: Root Down
by Derek Taylor
Sharing a fate similar to many musical innovators who weather the test of time Jimmy Smith eventually became a prisoner of the very style he pioneered. Cookie-cutter sessions that paled in comparison to his early, genre-defining work have become the norm in the organist’s later years. Root Down, recently reissued as part of ‘Verve By Request’ Series, originates from the beginnings of this period in Smith’s lengthy career, but it’s still got enough grooves and grease to make it worth ...
Continue ReadingJimmy Smith: Six Views of the Blues
by C. Michael Bailey
Greeeezy! Organist Jimmy Smith never made a bad record for Blue Note. A couple of his Verve recordings are stinkers, but still have some merit. But his Blue Note Recordings, well, they are the epitome of B-3 Hard Bop. That is why the revelation of previously unreleased Blue Note Sides is such a sunny event. Six Views of the Blues was recorded July 16, 1958 between the sessions that produced On the Sunny Side (Blue ...
Continue ReadingJimmy Smith: The Complete Blue Note February 1957 Jimmy Smith
by C. Michael Bailey
The Miracle of Mosaic. The Complete February 1957 Jimmy Smith Blue Note Sessions is not a new release. It made the market in 1994 as a limited edition set of 5,000 three CD or 5 LP sets by the masters of the jazz reissue, Michael Cuscuna and Mosaic Records. The copy I have is numbered 3801 (so I suspect there will be plenty available for the time being). I own three other Mosaic sets, and all of them are unique ...
Continue ReadingJimmy Smith: Standards
by C. Michael Bailey
Back at the Chicken Shack. The jazz organ is one of the few instruments that has been completely dominated by a single individual. That individual is Jimmy Smith. Born in Norristown, PA, Smith studied music in Philadelphia, a major jazz organ center. Starting on piano, he switched to the organ three years prior to his first recording date. Teaching himself the organ, Smith committed himself to the woodshed for three months, emerging with a fully formed, powerful playing style much ...
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