Jimmy Smith (musician)
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| Jimmy Smith | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | James Oscar Smith |
| Also known as | The Incredible Jimmy Smith |
| Born | December 8, 1925 Norristown, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Died | February 8, 2005 (aged 79) Scottsdale, Arizona |
| Genre(s) | Soul-jazz Hard bop Mainstream jazz Jazz-funk Jazz fusion |
| Occupation(s) | musician |
| Instrument(s) | Hammond B-3 electric organ |
| Years active | 1956-2005 |
| Label(s) | Blue Note, Verve |
Jimmy Smith, (December 8, 1925 (year of birth is disputable & is often stated as 1928) – February 8, 2005) was a jazz musician whose Hammond B-3 electric organ performances helped to popularize this instrument.
Born as James Oscar Smith in Norristown, Pennsylvania, U.S.. Smith was influenced by both gospel and blues. He first achieved prominence in the 1950s when his recordings became popular on jukeboxes. In the late 1950s and the sixties he helped to create the jazz style known as 'soul jazz'.
In 2005, Jimmy Smith was awarded the NEA Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honors that the United States bestows upon jazz musicians.
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[edit] Career
Originally a pianist, Smith switched to organ in 1953 after hearing Wild Bill Davis. He purchased his first Hammond B-3 organ, rented a warehouse to practice in & emerged after little more than a year with an exciting new sound which was to completely revolutionize the way in which the instrument could be played. On hearing him playing in a Philidelphia club, Blue Note's Alfred Lion immediately signed him to the label & with his second album, also known as The Champ, quickly established Smith as a new star on the jazz scene. He was a prolific recording artist & as a leader, recorded around 40 sessions for Blue Note in just 8 years beginning in 1956. His most notable albums from this period include The Sermon!, House Party, Home Cookin' , Midnight Special, Back at the Chicken Shack & Prayer Meetin' .
Smith then signed to Verve Records label in 1962. His first album Bashin', sold well & for the first time, set Smith with a big band led by Oliver Nelson. Further Big band collaborations followed, most successfully with Lalo Schifrin for The Cat & guitarist Wes Montgomery, with whom he recorded two albums: The Dynamic Duo and Further Adventures Of Jimmy and Wes. Other notable albums from this period include Blue Bash & Organ Grinder's Swing with Kenny Burrell, The Boss with George Benson, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Got My Mojo Workin, & the funky Root Down.
During the 50s & 60s, Smith recorded with some of the great jazz musicians of the day such as Kenny Burrell, George Benson, Grant Green, Stanley Turrentine, Lee Morgan, Lou Donaldson, Tina Brooks, Jackie McLean, Grady Tate and Donald Bailey. In the 1970s, Smith opened his own supperclub in L.A. & played there regularly.
Smith had a career revival in the 1980s & 90s, again recording for Blue Note and Verve, & for Milestone & Elektra. Smith also recorded with other artists including Quincy Jones/Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Dee Dee Bridgewater & Joey DeFrancesco. His last major album Dot Com Blues (Blue Thumb, 2000), featured many special guests such as Dr. John, B.B.King & Etta James.
[edit] Musical Style
While the electric organ was used in jazz by Fats Waller and Count Basie, Smith's virtuoso improvisation technique on the Hammond helped to popularize the electric organ as a jazz and blues instrument. For ballads, he played walking bass lines on the bass foot pedals. For uptempo tunes, he would play the bass line on the lower manual and use the pedals for emphasis on the attack of certain notes, which helped to emulate the attack and sound of a string bass.
His solos were characterised by percussive chords mixed with very fast melodic improvisation with the right hand. Smith used a drawbar registration in which the drawbars were pulled out so that the drawbar gradations would read-from the lowest to the highest harmonics-as "868000000" or "888000000" on the lower manual.[citation needed] Smith used the lower manual for the bass line and to perform accompaniment (also called "comping") chords. He used a similar registration on the upper manual, which he used for soloing, but with the addition of other harmonics during the attack of the note (using the Hammond's "percussion" circuit).[citation needed]
[edit] Influence
Smith influenced many other jazz organists ( List of jazz organists ). More recently, Smith influenced bands such as the Beastie Boys, who sampled the bassline from "Root Down (and Get It)" from Root Down—and saluted Smith in the lyrics—for their own hit "Root Down," Medeski, Martin & Wood, and The Hayden-Eckert Ensemble. The Acid Jazz movement also reflects Smith's organ style. In 1999, Smith guested on two tracks of a live album, Incredible!- with his protégé, Joey DeFrancesco, a then 28-year-old organist. Smith and DeFrancesco later played together on the collaborative album Legacy, released in 2005 shortly after Smith's death.
[edit] Discography
[edit] As leader
Blue Note 1956-63
[Jimmy Smith recorded more than forty sessions as a leader for Blue Note between 1956-63. Many of them were not released until several years after the original recording dates, as shown] *
1956
- A New Sound-A New Star Vol.1
- A New Sound-A New Star Vol.2
- The Incredible Jimmy Smith at the Organ Vol.3
- At Club Baby Grand Vol.1
- At Club Baby Grand Vol.2
1957
- A Date With Jimmy Smith Vol. 1
- A Date With Jimmy Smith Vol. 2
- Jimmy Smith At The Organ Vol. 1
- Jimmy Smith At The Organ Vol. 2
- The Sounds of Jimmy Smith
- Groovin' at Small's Vol. 1
- Groovin' at Small's Vol. 2
- Plays Pretty Just for You
- Special Guests *
- Jimmy Smith Trio + LD *
- Confirmation *
- Cherokee *
- Lonesome Road *
1958
- House Party
- The Sermon
- Softly As A Summer Breeze
- Cool Blues *
- On the Sunny Side *
- Confirmation *
- Six Views of the Blues *
1959
- Home Cookin'
1960
- Crazy! Baby
- Back At The Chicken Shack
- Open House *
- Plain Talk *
1961
- Midnight Special
- Straight Life *
1962
- Plays Fats Waller
1963
- Rockin' the Boat
- Prayer Meetin'
- Bucket! *
- I'm Movin' On *
Verve 1962-73
[On Verve between 1962-73, unless otherwise stated]
1962
- Bashin'
1963
- Any Number Can Win
- Blue Bash (with Kenny Burrell)
- Hobo Flats
- Live at the Village Gate (Metro)
- Plays the Blues (PolyGram)
1964
- The Cat
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Christmas Cookin'/Christmas '64
1965
- Monster
- Organ Grinder's Swing
- Got My Mojo Workin'
- In Hamburg Live (Metro)
- Live in Concert /Paris/Salle Pleyel Live (Metro)
- La Métamorphose des cloportes (Soundtrack) *
1966
- Hoochie Coochie Man
- Peter and the Wolf
- The Dynamic Duo (with Wes Montgomerey)
- Further Adventures of Jimmy & Wes (with Wes Montgomerey) *
1967
- Respect
1968
- The Boss
- Livin' It Up
- Stay Loose
- Live Salle Pleyel (Trema) *
1969
- Groove Drops
1971
- I'm Gonna Git Myself Together
- In A Plain Brown Wrapper
1972
- Bluesmith
- Root Down - Live
- Newport In New York '72/The Jimmy Smith Jam, Vol.5 (Atlantic)
1973
- Portuguese Soul
- The Other Side Of Jimmy Smith (MGM)
Various Labels
1974
- Blacksmith (Pride)
- Paid in Full (Mojo)
1975
- '75 (Mojo)
1976
- Sit on It! (Mercury)
1977
- It's Necessary (Mercury)
1978
- Unfinished Business (Mercury)
1980
- The Cat Strikes Again (Laserlight)
- Mr. Jim (Manhattan)
- Second Coming (Mojo)
1981
- All The Way Live (with Eddie Harris) (Milestone)
1982
- Off the Top (Elektra)
1983
- Keep on Comin' (Elektra)
1986
- Go For Watcha Know (Blue Note)
1989
- Prime Time (Milestone)
1990
- Fourmost Live (Milestone)
- Fourmost Return (Milestone)
1993
- Sum Serious Blues (Milestone)
- The Master (Blue Note)
- The Master II (Blue Note)
1995
- Damn! (Verve)
1996
- Angel Eyes (Verve)
2000
- Dot Com Blues (Blue Thumb/Verve)
2001
- Black Cat/Daybreak (Castle)
[edit] Guest Appearances
1975
- Lenny White - Venusian Summer (L.White/J.Smith/Larry Young/L.Coryell/Al DiMeola/Weldon Irvine/Hubert Laws) (Emperor)
1983
- James Ingram - It's Your Night (QWest)
1984
- Stanley Turrentine - Straight Ahead (S. Turrentine/J.Smith/G.Benson/L.McCann) (Blue Note)
- Frank Sinatra - L.A. Is My Lady (Warners)
1987
- Michael Jackson - Bad (Epic/Sony)
1994
- Dee Dee Bridgewater - Love & Peace: A Tribute To Horace Silver (Verve)
1999
- Joey DeFrancesco - Incredible! (Concord)
2005
- Joey DeFrancesco - Legacy (Concord)
