BLP 4235

Jimmy Smith - Bucket!

Released - 1966

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, February 1, 1963
Jimmy Smith, organ; Quentin Warren, guitar; Donald Bailey, drums.

tk.25 Careless Love
tk.28 Sassy Mae
tk.30 John Brown's Body
tk.33 Come Rain Or Come Shine
tk.37 3 For 4
tk.38 Bucket
tk.43 Just Squeeze Me

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Bucket	Jimmy Smith	February 1 1963
Careless Love	W.C. Handy, Martha E. Koenig, Spencer Williams	February 1 1963
3 for 4	Jimmy Smith	February 1 1963
Just Squeeze Me (But Please Don't Tease Me)	Duke Ellington, Lee Gaines	February 1 1963
Side Two
Sassy Mae	Jimmy Smith	February 1 1963
Come Rain or Come Shine	Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer	February 1 1963
John Brown's Body	Traditional	February 1 1963

Liner Notes

IN 1955 the music of Jimmy Smith was an innovation. His trio, formed in September of that year, introduced a sound and a technique without precedent in jazz.

Today, more than a decade later, Jimmy Smith is an institution — or perhaps one should say, in more senses than one, an organization, The intervening years have seen literally hundreds of would-be Smiths arise, most of them attempting to use many of the same techniques and devices that have become associated with him, as well as the instrumentation he did so much to popularize (organ, guitar and drums). A few have succeeded, but Smith got there first with the most.

Jimmy has never credited any particular musician with inspiring him, though he acknowledges that Wild Bill Davis was the man whose work impelled him to make the switch to organ. "Nobody needed to influence me," he once told Barbara Gardner in a Down Beat interview, I was always a jazz musician, even when I didn't know it. I was like a horse who didn't know where to run. The world was a little too slow in recognizing what I was, and I was too young to understand what I had. But my parents knew, and they encouraged my playing. I was nine years old before the world began to take notice of me, but I was born a jazz musician."

I have heard many adjectives and nouns used in critical attempts to sum up the meaning of Smith's contribution to music. "Excitement" is a word often used, yet I find that excitement for its own sake, or without attendant musical values, is not the sole or central characteristic. "Intensity" is another frequently applied term, and here we are a little closer to the core of the matter. But perhaps the aptest polysyllable would be "communication." Jimmy himself certainly would concur, for as he once said, "I bow to the masses, _ I have different bags that I work out of, I have changed tunes right in the middle of a number if I'm not getting to my audience. It's just like in church; a preacher's got to have that Amen corner going for him. The more they say Amen, the better he can preach."

On this album Jimmy preaches in a manner conducive to arousing the enthusiastic Amens of his ever-growing flock. His companions in the delivery of his sermon are Quentin Warren and Donald Bailey. Warren, Of course, has been featured before in such successful Blue Note LPs as Crazy Baby!, which Jimmy once described (in 1962) as the best of all his albums up to that time. Donald Bailey, the drummer on that set and on many others with Jimmy, has recently been free-lancing with Hampton Hawes and Red Mitchell on the West Coast.

Bucket, the opening title number, is a blues in G. Like so many blues Jimmy has recorded through the years, it has an extended melodic quality derived from the use Of 24-bar chorus instead of the traditional 12-measure pattern. There is also a little I Got Rhythm-type beat that trots alongside the melody, as Jimmy puts both hands and feet through a long series Of choruses, Notice how effectively he makes use of short phrases, in contrast with the long-drawn-out character of many of his more elaborate improvisations.

Careless Love is an ancient theme that may predate the present century. Once a great hillbilly favorite, it was popularized in the early 1920s by W.C Handy as Loveless Love. Jimmy takes it at a very easy gait, displaying a capacity for understatement that is frequently displayed in this album.

3 for 4 is a waltz blues in F. Jimmy is not one of the more conspicuously waltz-addicted jazzmen; almost all his biggest hits have been in some variation of 4/4 time. The ternary idiom seems to fit him very snugly, however. For three choruses the spotlight is deflected to Quentin Warren, Who is no less at ease in this three-beat bag. Notice how effectively Donald Bailey changes the mood by doubling up the meter at what seems like the most appropriate possible moment.

Just Squeeze Me is a staple from the Duke Ellington library. Originally recorded in 1941 by Rex Stewart with a contingent from Duke's band, it then bore the title Subtle Slough. It is not to be confused with Squeeze Me, a much older composition by Fats Waller, though coincidentally the latter was recorded by an identical Jimmy Smith Trio (Blue Note 4100/ST-84100).

Jimmy displays a gentle and subdued mood here, playing the whole of the second chorus and the release of the opening and closing choruses. The rest of the performance is turned over to guitarist Warren, who sensibly leaves the simple tune undistorted in his chordal treatment, saving the moments Of personal discovery for a single-string improvisation in the third chorus.

Sassy Mae, the initial track on the second side, has much in common with the other opener, Bucket. Both are based on the blues and both are in G. This time, however, the tempo is more relaxed and Donald Bailey gets a supple eight-beat feeling going that lends the performance a quasi-Latin character.

Come Rain or Come Shine is the perennial Harold Arlen melody introduced in the 1946 Broadway musical St. Louis Woman. Jimmy knows just when to respect a melody, and that is exactly what happens on the first statement. Even though he has some busy moments in the second chorus, his interpretation is generally restrained and wistful — almost as though he were playing the lyrics.

John Brown's Body was originally a revival-style hymn. Written by Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), it was first generally known as Glory Hallelujah, but became famous during the Civil War as the marching song of the Northern armies, or the Battle Hymn of the Republic, Jazzmen have taken it up in increasing numbers in recent years; the harmonic pattern lends itself ideally to a funky and blues-inclined rendition. Jimmy takes it at a firm, slow-to-moderate pace that swings in a highly personal manner.

Whether you still regard his work as an innovation or cherish it as an institution, one thing is certain: Jimmy Smith is one of a kind. Perhaps the world really did, as he claims, beg-in to take notice of him when he was nine; but every fresh performance completed, every new album released, reminds us that he will find new worlds to conquer for many years to come.

—LEONARD FEATHER

Photo by JEAN-PIERRE LELOIR
Cover Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, February 1, 1963.

Produced by ALFRED LION