Jimmy Smith

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Is The Sermon another must-have? I've read some really great things about it, but haven't heard a note. I only have Root Down Live, which I LOVE.

Paid In Full - a hard to come by release from 1974, which was just re-released last year
Home Cookin' - fantastic Blue note record
Any Number Can Win - I forget what label it's on, maybe Verve. If so, it's one of the few Verve releases I recommend without reservation.

really, any Blue Note albums are a safe bet.

Jimmy Smith's strong sales on Bluenote probably financed many of those great vanguard jazz records that didn't sell much then and are now considered classics.

Smith is incredibly consistent, so a lot of the interest comes from the other players on his LPs - the afore-mentioned 'Cool Blues' features the underrecorded saxophonist Tina Brooks, who makes an interesting point of comp w/ the more commonplace/bluesily orthodox Lou Donaldson.

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i would highly recommend the peter & the wolf soundtrack by jimmy. i would recommend the sermon, prayer meetin' and house party! for a taste of the more trad-sounding jimmy smith.

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OK, it's a big band+organ album: JS w/Lalo Schifrin...really powerful stuff. JTQ covered the title track on their first ep (towards the end of their Small Faces period).

BTW, when did you turn British, Gear?

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A record that's way way different than the sound of Jimmy Smith Blue Note work -- and a much-loved set by fans of 70s funk! Jimmy's organ is still very strongly out front of the arrangements -- but it's soaring over the top of grooves done by Jerry Peters and Michael "Incredible Bongo Band" Viner -- tracks that have a harder, hipper style than most of Smith's other recordings from the time -- in a groove that often comes close to the best blacksploitation soundtracks of the time! The drums are plenty heavy on many numbers here -- kicking in a hard and heavy bottom that gives the record a few key breaks -- and other numbers even use a bit of chorus vocals, but in a way that never overwhelms the tracks, just supports them with a nice righteous edge. Titles include the classic break version of "I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More Babe", plus "Something You Got", "Wildflower", "Hang Em High", "Groovin", "Pipeline", "Why Can't We Live Together", and "Joy".

I'm kind of shocked that this thread has the most recent post across the two Jimmy Smith threads on ilx. I know he's sort of an unexciting trad player in some way, but sometimes he's all I want to listen to. I'm pulling out every one I have on vinyl and playing it tonight.

Prayer Meetin' is the one I know front-to-back, one of the first CDs I ever bought.

I'm listening to Greensleeves on Organ Grinder Swing, per the season, and it jams. Even non-seasonal Jimmy Smith songs sound sort of like holiday songs with that organ sound.

I like when I think the record is skipping but he's just repeating the same line for really long time.

There's some good Jimmy Smith stuff in Billy Hart's autobio, that was one of his early professional gigs. He also talks about Donald Bailey, and I went on a deep dive earlier this year after reading some of these essays:

https://vinniesperrazza.substack.com/p/for-donald-bailey
https://vinniesperrazza.substack.com/p/for-donald-bailey-part-2

Basically people saw him as a true modernist, exploring what Elvin Jones was doing at the same time. Even playing a lot of shuffles with Jimmy Smith he still reimagined that beat on Back to the Chicken Shack.

Don’t think I've ever even heard of Donald Bailey.

Wonder if people called him Donald "Duck" Bailey, as with every other Donald.

Lol, it does say "we called him Duck."

This one too, the Hampton Hawes album he talks about is great:
https://ethaniverson.com/drums-and-cymbals-by-donald-bailey/

Reminds me that I have been meaning to read Hampton Hawes autobiography for years, ever since I first overheard Spike Wilner talking it up.

Raise Up Off Me

Ha, listening to Hampton Hawes right now and hearing some nice drumming but in this case it seems to be Shelly Manne.

Unless it was Chuck Thompson, who I also never heard of but I see mentioned in those Vinnie Sperrazza posts

The history of jazz is not the history of jazz on record. Donald Bailey is much more than the recordings he left behind, yet we gain nothing by ignoring them
True dat.

good revive. especially love the following jimmy smiths:
i'm movin on
back at the chicken shack
portugese soul
root down

...but all of 'em are good in their own way.

also hey: hampton hawes mention! and donald bailey! some seldom-mentioned players. i have some hawes records i think...

(xp) Then there's yet another drummer on the Hampton Hawes quartet records, Eldridge "Buzz" (or "Bruz") Freeman, brother of George and Von and uncle of Chico Freeman.

But Red Mitchell seems to be a constant on bass and sounding great.

shoot, didn't even realize that's bailey on i'm movin' on:
https://www.discogs.com/master/300971-The-Incredible-Jimmy-Smith-Im-Movin-On

Hampton Hawes: Raise Up Off Him

my best thrift store find was a couple years ago, when i happened across the original release (in mono! microgroove! RVG!) of his blue note album Midnight Special, and it's actually in VG++ condition.

Wow, that's quite a score (and great album).

"The Cat" is one that I have gotten into in the past couple of years which features arrangements and tunes by Lalo Schifrin.

Schifrin is one of those people that I would love to have the time and check out most of what he did, as everything that I have heard is really good.