Harold Vick

Johnny "Hammond" Smith: Wild Horses Rock Steady

by Arnaldo DeSouteiro
November 3, 2024

Born John Robert Smith on December 16, 1933 (in Louisville, KY), formerly known as Johnny Hammond Smith, and later as Johnnny Hammond, one of the all-time best jazz organists passed away on June 4, 1997, in Chicago, Illinois. For some of his early fans, some of the best albums he recorded were done for Prestige in the Sixties. A younger generation, who grew up listening to the hip-hop influenced jazz sounds of the 1990s, prefers Johnny's over-produced sessions for Milestone ...

Album Review

Walter Bishop Jr.: Bish at the Bank: Live in Baltimore

Read "Bish at the Bank: Live in Baltimore" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
April 14, 2023

Although he played with many of the icons of bebop's formative years from Bird to Miles, as well as those who were starting to reach for something beyond, including Ken McIntyre and Jackie McLean, pianist Walter Bishop Jr. never got his due as a leader, remaining woefully under-recorded until the 1970s. Most of his albums remain out of print, with the notable exceptions being The Walter Bishop Jr. Trio / 1965 (Prestige) and Coral Keys (Black Jazz, 1971)--and by the ...

Recording

Harold Vick: Steppin' Out

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 25, 2016

To pay the bills and gain experience in the 1950s, a surprising number of jazz saxophonists began their careers in R&B bands. The list is too long to run out here but it includes John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Stanley Turrentine, Hank Crawford and Tina Brooks. There certainly was plenty of work at urban bars in African-American neighborhoods and all along the so-called Chitlin' Circuit—the archipelago of clubs between the East Coast and Midwest that hired such instrumental groups. One of ...
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