Jazz Articles about Jimmy Smith

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Jimmy Smith: Fourmost Return

by David A. Orthmann
April 1, 2001

An informal, occasionally rambling conversation between longtime colleagues,Fourmost Returnconsists of seven previously unreleased tracks from a 1990 live performance at Fat Tuesday’s in New York City. With an emphasis on blues material, the record is a no frills blowing session, a format ideally suited to the individual talents of organist and leader Jimmy Smith, tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, guitarist Kenny Burrell, and the drums and cymbals of Grady Tate.

The quartet’s performance of Sonny Rollins’ “Sonnymoon For Two” sets the ...

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Jimmy Smith: Dot Com Blues

by Chris M. Slawecki
January 11, 2001

He's known as one of the founding jazz fathers of Hammond B-3 organ funk, but Jimmy Smith has always played the blues. Born in December 1928 in a suburb west of Philadelphia, Smith has been performing since he was 12, at that time in a song and dance act with his father. After a stint in the navy, Smith took advantage of the GI Bill to study bass, piano and music theory upon his service discharge. During this period Smith ...

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Jimmy Smith: The Sermon and Organ Grinder Swing

by David Adler
January 1, 2001

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 ...

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Jimmy Smith: Organ Grinder Swing

by C. Andrew Hovan
January 1, 2001

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 ...

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Jimmy Smith: Root Down

by David Adler
October 1, 2000

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 ...

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Jimmy Smith: Root Down

by Derek Taylor
September 1, 2000

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 ...

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Jimmy Smith: Six Views of the Blues

by C. Michael Bailey
December 1, 1999

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 ...