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Jimmy Smith: Confirmation

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Back in the vinyl era, record-buying decisions were made based on the backs of albums. Jacket covers attracted your attention in stores but the personnel, song choices and liner notes on the back often were tipping points in terms of spending. Before shrink wrap sealed albums starting in the early 1960s, some stores let you listen to albums prior to purchase but most didn't.

As a buyer, you were flying blind. Unless a friend had an album or you heard a track on an AM jazz radio station or on a jukebox, you had no way of knowing what the music sounded like or whether it was worthy of the price tag. Hence, variety was value. If you recognized a song or two, you were more likely to take a chance on the other songs you didn't know.

During recording sessions for Blue Note in the 1950s and '60, it wasn't unusual for musicians to run long on some songs. Even if those tracks were great, they were often edited down or shelved. If left untouched, they simply wouldn't fit given the magic number of songs most appealing to buyers. That number was 5 or 6. By the late 1970s, as labels changed hands and younger producers began to mine catalogues for new releases, these original long tracks were rediscovered. [Photo above of Rudy Van Gelder's recording studio in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.]

Back in 1979, while Michael Cuscuna (above) was at Blue Note, which by then had been absorbed by Liberty Records and then United Artists, he discovered previously unreleased material by Jimmy Smith. Among the tapes were three lengthy tracks—What Is This Thing Called Love? (15:13), Confirmation (10:31) and Cherokee (20:20).

What Is This Thing Called Love? was from Smith's House Party session for Blue Note in August 1957 and featured Lee Morgan (tp), Curtis Fuller (tb), George Coleman (as), Jimmy Smith (org), Eddie McFadden (g) and Donald Bailey (d). Cherokee was from the same House Party session, with Kenny Burrell replacing McFadden on guitar.

Confirmation was from Smith's The Sermon session for Blue Note in February 1958 and featured Lee Morgan (tp) Lou Donaldson (as) Tina Brooks (ts) Jimmy Smith (org) Kenny Burrell (g) Art Blakey (d).

Michael took the three long tracks and bundled them on an album entitled Confirmation, with What Is This Thing Called Love? and Confirmation on Side-1 and Cherokee covering all of Side-2. Powerful music and musicians discovered and repurposed, with Michael pioneering the jazz reissue movement in the late 1970s.

Jimmy Smith died in 2005.

JazzWax clips: Here are the long versions that appeared on Confirmation:

Here's What Is This Thing Called Love?...



Here's Confirmation...



Here's the 20:20 Cherokee...

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This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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