BST 84269

Jimmy Smith - Open House

Released - January 1968

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, March 22, 1960
Blue Mitchell, trumpet #1,4; Jackie McLean, alto sax #1,2,4; Ike Quebec, tenor sax #1,3,4; Jimmy Smith, organ; Quentin Warren, guitar; Donald Bailey, drums.

tk.3 Sister Rebecca
tk.4 Embraceable You
tk.6 Old Folks
tk.7 Open House

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Open House	Jimmy Smith	March 22 1960
Old Folks	Willard Robison, Dedette Lee Hill	March 22 1960
Side Two
Sista Rebecca	Jimmy Smith	March 22 1960
Embraceable You	Gershwin, Gershwin	March 22 1960

Liner Notes

There is in the musical mood that runs through these sides a certain poignant quality all too rarely found in current releases. To the student of jazz history, it represents the Zeitgeist of an era not too far back, but long enough gone to be missed. For the Jimmy Smith fan in general, this album will be regarded as a genuine collector's item, since by the standards of Jimmy's releases in recent years it is an unusual set both in the style of the performance and constitution of the personnel.

Originally, of course, Jimmy recorded with just guitar and drums, an instrumentation that was to become the classic and definitive format/ used by a thousand organ trios in every bar that could accommodate a console. (His debut album, A NEW STAR - A NEW SOUND on 1512, uncovered a creative talent that still holds up firmly in the light of a new day. Reheard in 1968, it offers an astonishing reminder of the catalytic stage he had already reached in 1956.)

There have been many other guitarists and drummers since the originals, who by the way were Thornel Schwartz and Bay Perry. There have also been occasional additions to the combo, usually a single saxophone, and later there were the big band dates. But OPEN HOUSE is lust what its title implies: an informal get-together at which the host entertains several guests who were casually invited.

According to Webster's, an open house also denotes "an occasion or period during which an organization puts its special features or products on public display." This definition holds up no less accurately. At an open house, of course, any number can play.

As Jimmy recalls the occasion, "Originally it was going to be just a trio session, with Ike Quebec added. But then I was in New York, and one night I happened to run into Jackie McLean at Birdland. He asked me to let him know next time I was going to do a date. I always dug Jackie's work, so when we were setting up the session I remembered, and called him.

"Then Alfred Lion thought of putting Blue Mitchell in, to give us a front line with a fuller ensemble sound. I'd known Blue since 1958, right after he joined Horace Silver's quintet, and the idea sounded fine to me."

As Jimmy points out, his own playing has changed in the years since this six-piece congregation was gathered together. The date was taped in March of 1960 and has I never been previously released. Whatever may have happened in the intervening period, it is clear from his first solo on the title number that all the elements so vital to his success - excitement, technical mastery, blues orientation, and a superb sense of continuity - were present in full force.

Then as now, Jimmy and his colleagues were never more completely at ease than when playing the blues. Not surprisingly, Open House is based on this traditional form, using a figure that has same phrasing as Duke Ellington's In A Mellotone, though there is no melodic resemblance. The riff is played alternately by the three horns before the aptly nicknamed Mr. Mitchell takes off into the wild blue yonder.

Blue, like Jimmy, is well versed in the art of building a mood. He can play very simply, as he reveals from time to time during his solo here; but his idols were such masters as Fats Navarro and Clifford Brown, whose control of the horn was almost limitless. Blue's own technical command enables him to lead into the soaring sixteenth notes achieved near the end of his contribution to this track.

Jackie McLean follows, playing compellingly funky blues out of an orthodox Bird bag. This session, incidentally, was made during the two-year period when he was involved, as player and actor, with the long-running play The Connection. He had also been heard around New York with Charlie Mingus, Art Blakey and many other combos.

Ike Quebec, who takes over from Jackie, really gets into something with Jimmy, his style a blend of the best of two eras: you hear the swing days in his tone quality, but more of a touch of the bop period in his improvisational lines. Donald Bailey, whose propulsive sound was a dynamic and indispensable part of the Smith phenomenon for eight happy years, plays an energetic role in stirring up the excitement during Ike's solo.

Then Jimmy himself takes over, and it's the stone, natural blues as nobody else can or could play it, all the way through until Quentin Warren begins riffing while Jimmy holds tenaciously onto a C (this is a blues in F) through the choruses of mounting tension, Then the horns go back to the riff for a repeat and fade.

Old Folks is best known in jazz circles through the 1953 Charlie Parker recording, one of his last sides; but the Willard Robinson song and lyrics were introduced in 1938 by the great Mildred Bailey. This is a quartet track, built around the warm, personal sound of Ike Quebec. One is reminded of a period when melodies of this kind often provided vehicles for melodic interpretations by tenor saxophonists with a comparable timbre. Born in 1918, Ike grew up in the days that saw Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Chu Berry bring this style to maturity.

Sista Rebecca is a Jimmy Smith original, but again he hews to the blues, this time in the minor mode. Ike's tone and style seemed to lend themselves especially well to minor themes. Blue's articulation is beautiful. Every note is placed exactly where it belongs, and you know it; there is no fumbling, no random running of notes for complexity's own sake. His lines have an evident freedom, but it is freedom within the disciplines established by the demands of a relationship to the clear, clean beat of the rhythm section. Jackie McLean displays a similarly acute sense of time, with Donald offering some unpretentiously valuable fills.

Jimmy starts his own solo by reducing the level of intensity, but only as part of a plan to build again to a busy and captivating climax before the theme returns. The tempo, too, is an easy moderato that seems to bring out to optimum effect all the virtues of a characteristic Smith blues groove.

Finally there is the slow and pensive reexamination of the 1930 Gershwin standard Embraceable You... Like Old Folks, this is a quartet track, but this time it is Jackie McLean who takes the solo spotlight. The tune was, of course, a favorite of Parker's, so a comparison with Bird is inevitable, yet there are innumerable occasions throughout the performance when it is clear that by this stage of his development, Jackie was his own man, despite the strong influence of the master. After two McLean choruses, Jimmy has a lovely, peaceful half-chorus in which he embraces the melody before the alto returns, with a graceful and never-too-busy cadenza to terminate the track and the album.

Much of jazz history has been written and played in the turbulent years since these sides were recorded. Of Jimmy's own progress little need be said; he is an institution, and seems likely to remain one for many years to come. Blue Mitchell, since leaving Horace in 1964, has toured with his own quintet and has free-lanced at home and abroad.

Ike Quebec, after too long an absence from the scene, returned to record as a leader for Blue Note in 1961-2, but tragically, the comeback was too late; incurably ill, he passed away in January of 1963. Jackie McLean during the 1960s has developed impressively both as soloist and composer, evolving from the Bird-inspired earlier period into an avant garde approach that has been displayed in a series of Blue Note LPs under his own leadership. Quentin Warren, according to Jimmy Smith, was last heard of driving a bus in Washington, D.C. Donald Bailey, settling in Southern California, has worked with the Three Sounds and other Los Angeles based combos.

That time has wrought these changes makes it all the more gratifying that we have these Jimmy Smith sextet sides. In a sense they recall an era of modern jazz that has virtually passed, a day when musicians would gather in a recording studio to play the blues and ballads without arrangements or pretension. With the release of this record we are, in effect, welcomed back into an open house that has long since closed its doors.

LEONARD FEATHER