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![Jimmy Smith](https://pplstatic.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/people/thumbs/J/jimmy-smith.jpg)
Jimmy Smith
Quick Facts
![Jimmy Smith](https://pplstatic.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/people/featured/J/jimmy-smith/jimmy_smith_american_jazz_organist_photo_by_jon_hammond_2005.jpg)
Biography
James Oscar Smith (December 8, 1928 – February 8, 2005) was an American jazz musician whose albums often appeared on Billboard magazine charts. He helped popularize the Hammond B-3 organ, creating a link between jazz and 1960s soul music.
In 2005, Smith was awarded the NEA Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honor that America bestows upon jazz musicians.
Early years
There is confusion about Smith's birth year, with sources citing either 1925 or 1928. Born James Oscar Smith in Norristown, Pennsylvania, he joined his father doing a song-and-dance routine in clubs at the age of six. He began teaching himself to play the piano. When he was nine, Smith won a Philadelphia radio talent contest as a boogie-woogie pianist. After a period in the U.S. Navy, he began furthering his musical education in 1948, with a year at Royal Hamilton College of Music, then the Leo Ornstein School of Music in Philadelphia in 1949. He began exploring the Hammond organ in 1951. From 1951 to 1954, he played piano, then organ in Philly R&B bands like Don Gardner and the Sonotones. He switched to organ permanently in 1954 after hearing Wild Bill Davis.
Career
He purchased his first Hammond organ, rented a warehouse to practice in and emerged after little more than a year. Upon hearing him playing in a Philadelphia club, Blue Note's Alfred Lion immediately signed him to the label and his second album, The Champ, quickly established Smith as a new star on the jazz scene. He was a prolific recording artist and, as a leader, dubbed The Incredible Jimmy Smith, he recorded around forty sessions for Blue Note in just eight years beginning in 1956. Albums from this period include The Sermon!, House Party, Home Cooking', Midnight Special, Back at the Chicken Shack and Prayer Meetin'.
Smith signed to the Verve label in 1962. His first album, Bashin', sold well and for the first time Smith worked with a big band, led by Oliver Nelson. Further big band collaborations followed with composer/arranger Lalo Schifrin for The Cat and guitarist Wes Montgomery, with whom he recorded two albums: The Dynamic Duo and Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes. Other albums from this period include Blue Bash! and Organ Grinder Swing with Kenny Burrell, The Boss with George Benson, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Got My Mojo Working, and Hoochie Coochie Man.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Smith almost always performed live, in a trio, consisting of organ, guitar and drums. The Jimmy Smith Trio performed "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and "The Sermon" in the film Get Yourself a College Girl (1964).
In the 1970s, Smith opened his own supper club in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, at 12910 Victory Boulevard and played there regularly with Kenny Dixon on drums, Herman Riley and John F. Phillips on saxophone; also included in the band was harmonica/flute player Stanley Behrens. The 1972 album Root Down, considered a seminal influence on later generations of funk and hip-hop musicians, was recorded live at the club, albeit with a different group of backing musicians.
![Jimmy Smith](https://pplstatic.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/people/bio/J/jimmy-smith/jimmy_smith_london_jazz_cafe_mar_2004.jpg)
Later career
Holle Thee Maxwell, then known as Holly Maxwell, was Smith's vocalist for two years in the late 1970s. During a South African tour, they recorded the album Jimmy Smith Plays for the People in 1978.
Smith had a career revival in the 1980s and 1990s, again recording for Blue Note and Verve, and for Elektra and Milestone. He also recorded with Quincy Jones, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson (he can be heard on the title track of the Bad album), Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Joey DeFrancesco. His last album, Dot Com Blues (Blue Thumb/Verve, 2000), was recorded with B. B. King, Dr. John, and Etta James.
![Jimmy Smith](https://pplstatic.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/people/bio/J/jimmy-smith/liri_blues_jimmy_smith_2004.jpg)
Smith and his wife moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, in 2004. She died of cancer a few months later. Smith recorded Legacy with Joey DeFrancesco, and the two prepared to go on tour.However, before the tour began, Smith died on February 8, 2005, at his Scottsdale home, where he was found by his manager, Robert Clayton. He died in his sleep of natural causes.
Musical style
![Jimmy Smith](https://pplstatic.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/people/bio/J/jimmy-smith/jimmy_smith_american_jazz_organist_photo_by_jon_hammond_2005.jpg)
While the electric organ had been used in jazz by Fats Waller, Count Basie, Wild Bill Davis and others, Smith's virtuoso improvisation technique on the Hammond helped to popularize the electric organ as a jazz and blues instrument. The B3 and companion Leslie speaker produce a distinctive sound, including percussive "clicks" with each key stroke. The drawbar setting most commonly associated with Smith is to pull out the first three drawbars on the "B" preset on the top manual of the organ, with added harmonic percussion on the 3rd harmonic. This tone has been emulated by many jazz organists since Smith. Smith's style on fast tempo pieces combined bluesy "licks" with bebop-based single note runs.For ballads, he played walking bass lines on the bass 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.
Smith influenced a constellation of jazz organists, including Jimmy McGriff, Brother Jack McDuff, Don Patterson, Richard "Groove" Holmes, Joey DeFrancesco, Tony Monaco and Larry Goldings, as well as rock keyboardists such as Jon Lord, Brian Auger and Keith Emerson. Emerson would later recount a story where Smith grabbed Emerson's "meat and two veg" as a humorous greeting. Later, Smith influenced bands such as Medeski, Martin & Wood and 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". Often called the father of acid jazz, Smith lived to see that movement come to reflect his organ style. In the 1990s, Smith went to Nashville, taking a break from his ongoing gigs at his Sacramento restaurant which he owned and, in Music City, Nashville, he produced, with the help of a webmaster, Dot Com Blues, his last Verve album. In 1999, Smith guested on two tracks of a live album, Incredible! (Smith's nickname during the 1960s) with his protégé, Joey DeFrancesco, a then 28-year-old organist. Smith and DeFrancesco's collaborative album Legacy was released in 2005 shortly after Smith's death.
Discography
As leader/co-leader
Recording date | Title | Label | Year released | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1956-02 | A New Sound... A New Star... Jimmy Smith at the Organ, Volume 1 | Blue Note | 1956 | |
1956-03 | A New Sound A New Star: Jimmy Smith at the Organ Volume 2 | Blue Note | 1956 | AKA The Champ |
1956-06 | The Incredible Jimmy Smith at the Organ Volume 3 | Blue Note | 1956 | |
1956-08 | At Club Baby Grand (Volume 1 & Volume 2) | Blue Note | 1956 | Live |
1957-02 | A Date with Jimmy Smith Volume One | Blue Note | 1957 | |
1957-02 | A Date with Jimmy Smith Volume Two | Blue Note | 1957 | |
1957-02 | Jimmy Smith at the Organ (Volume 1 & Volume 2) | Blue Note | 1957 | |
1957-02 | The Sounds of Jimmy Smith | Blue Note | 1957 | |
1957-05 | Plays Pretty Just for You | Blue Note | 1957 | |
1957-05, 1957-07 | Cherokee | Blue Note | 1996 | |
1957-07 | Jimmy Smith Trio + LD with Lou Donaldson | Blue Note | 1985 | Japan only release |
1957-11 | Groovin' at Smalls' Paradise (Volume 1 & Volume 2) | Blue Note | 1958 | Live |
1957-11 | Lonesome Road | Blue Note | 1996 | |
1957-08, 1958-02 | House Party | Blue Note | 1958 | |
1957-08, 1958-02 | The Sermon! | Blue Note | 1959 | |
1957-08, 1958-02 | Confirmation | Blue Note | 1979 | LT series |
1958-02 | Softly as a Summer Breeze | Blue Note | 1965 | |
1958-04 | Cool Blues | Blue Note | 1980 | LT series. Live. |
1958-07 | Six Views of the Blues | Blue Note | 1999 | |
1957-08, 1958-07, 1959-05 | Standards | Blue Note | 1998 | |
1958-07, 1959-05, 1959-07 | Home Cookin' | Blue Note | 1961 | |
1960-01 | Crazy! Baby | Blue Note | 1960 | |
1960-03 | Open House | Blue Note | 1968 | |
1960-03 | Plain Talk | Blue Note | 1968 | |
1957-08, 1958-07, 1959-06, 1960-04 | On the Sunny Side | Blue Note | 1981 | LT series |
1960-04 | Midnight Special | Blue Note | 1961 | |
1960-04 | Back at the Chicken Shack | Blue Note | 1963 | |
1961-06 | Straight Life | Blue Note | 2007 | |
1962-01 | Plays Fats Waller | Blue Note | 1962 | |
1962-03 | Bashin': The Unpredictable Jimmy Smith | Verve | 1962 | |
1957-08, 1960-06, 1963-01 | Special Guests | Blue Note | 1984 | |
1963-01 | I'm Movin' On | Blue Note | 1967 | |
1963-02 | Bucket! | Blue Note | 1966 | |
1963-02 | Rockin' the Boat | Blue Note | 1963 | |
1963-02 | Prayer Meetin' | Blue Note | 1964 | |
1963-03 | Hobo Flats | Verve | 1963 | |
1963-05 | Live at the Village Gate | Verve | 1963 | Live |
1963-07 | Any Number Can Win | Verve | 1963 | |
1963-07 | Blue Bash! with Kenny Burrell | Verve | 1963 | |
1964-01 | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Verve | 1964 | |
1964-04 | The Cat | Verve | 1964 | |
1964-04, 1964-09 | Christmas '64 | Verve | 1964 | |
1965-01 | Monster | Verve | 1965 | |
1965-05 | Live in Concert | Metro | 1966 | Live |
1965-06 | La Metamorphose Des Cloportes | Verve | 1965 | |
1965-06 | Organ Grinder Swing | Verve | 1965 | |
1965? | In Hamburg – Live! | Verve (Germany) | 1965 | Live |
1965-12 | Got My Mojo Workin' | Verve | 1966 | |
1966-05 | Peter & the Wolf | Verve | 1966 | |
1966-06 | Hoochie Coochie Man | Verve | 1966 | |
1966? | Swings Along with Stranger in Paradise | Pickwick | 1966 | |
1966-09 | Jimmy & Wes: The Dynamic Duo with Wes Montgomery | Verve | 1966 | |
1966-09 | Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes with Wes Montgomery | Verve | 1968 | |
1967-06 | Respect | Verve | 1967 | |
1968-01 | Stay Loose | Verve | 1968 | |
1968-05 | Livin' It Up! | Verve | 1968 | |
1968 | The Boss | Verve | 1968 | Live |
1968-11 | Groove Drops | Verve | 1970 | |
1970-02 | I'm Gon' Git Myself Together | MGM | 1970 | |
1970-08 | The Other Side of Jimmy Smith | MGM | 1970 | |
1971-07? | In a Plain Brown Wrapper | Verve | 1971 | |
1972-02 | Root Down | Verve | 1972 | Live |
1972-07 | The Jimmy Smith Jam | Cobblestone/Atlantic | 1972 | Live. Newport In New York '72 series Vol.5. |
1972-09 | Bluesmith | Verve | 1972 | |
1973-02 | Portuguese Soul | Verve | 1973 | |
1974 | Black Smith | MGM/Pride | 1974 | |
1974 | Paid in Full | Mojo | 1974 | |
1974-10? | Live In Israel | Isradisc | 1974 | Live. Israel only release. |
1974-10, additional | Jimmy Smith '75 | Mojo | 1975 | partially live in Israel |
1976-12 | Sit on It! | Mercury | 1977 | |
1977-07 | It's Necessary | Mercury | 1977 | Live |
1978-01 | Unfinished Business | Mercury | 1978 | |
1978-12 | Jimmy Smith Plays For The People | Polydor | 1979 | South Africa only release |
1980-07 | The Cat Strikes Again | Wersi | 1980 | |
1981 | Second Coming | Mojo | 1981 | |
1981-08 | All the Way Live with Eddie Harris | Milestone | 1996 | Live |
1982-06 | Off the Top | Elektra/Musician | 1982 | |
1983-09 | Keep On Comin' | Elektra/Musician | 1983 | Live |
1986-01 | Go for Whatcha Know | Blue Note | 1986 | |
1989-08 | Prime Time | Milestone | 1989 | |
1990-11 | Fourmost with Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Burrell, Grady Tate | Milestone | 1991 | Live |
1990-11 | Fourmost Return | Milestone | 2001 | Liive |
1993-01 | Sum Serious Blues | Milestone | 1993 | |
1993-12 | The Master | Blue Note | 1994 | Live |
1993-12 | The Master II | Blue Note | 1994 | Live |
1995-01 | Damn! | Verve | 1995 | |
1995-01 | Angel Eyes: Ballads & Slow Jams | Verve | 1996 | |
2000-02, 2000-03, 2000-04, 2000-06 | Dot Com Blues | Verve/Blue Thumb | 2000 | |
1999-10, 2001-04 | Daybreak also released as The Cat Swings Again (Jazz Hour, 2003), Black Cat (Castle Pie, 2004) | West Wind | 2002 | Partially live (1999-10) |
Compilations
- The Best of Jimmy Smith (Verve, 1967)
- The Fantastic Jimmy Smith (Upfront, 1969) – rec. 1956–66
- The Best of Jimmy Smith - The Blue Note Years (Blue Note, 1988)
- Walk On The Wild Side - Best of The Verve Years (Verve, 1995)[2CD]
- Milestone Profiles (Milestone, 2006)
- Definitive Collection (Verve, 2008)