LT-1092

Jimmy Smith - On The Sunny Side

Released - 1981

Recording and Session Information

Manhattan Towers, NYC, August 25, 1957
Jimmy Smith, organ; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Donald Bailey, drums.

tk.6 Little Girl Blue

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, July 15, 1958
Jimmy Smith, organ; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Donald Bailey, drums.

tk.2 Bye Bye Blackbird
tk.3 September Song
tk.7 Since I Fell For You
tk.10 Just A Lucky So And So
tk.14 Ruby

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, June 16, 1959
Percy France, tenor sax; Jimmy Smith, organ; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Donald Bailey, drums.

tk.18 Apostrophe

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, April 25, 1960
Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Jimmy Smith, organ; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Donald Bailey, drums.

tk.10 On The Sunny Side Of The Street

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
On The Sunny Side Of The Street	D. Fields-J. McHugh	April 25 1960
Since I Fell For You	Buddy Johnson	July 15 1958
Apostrophe	Percy France	June 16 1959
Little Girl Blue	L. Hart-R. Rodgers	August 25 1957
Side Two
Bye Bye Blackbird	M. Dixon-R. Henderson	July 15 1958
Just A Lucky So And So	D. Ellington-M. David	July 15 1958
Ruby	H. Roemheld-M. Parish	July 15 1958
September Song	K. Weill-M. Anderson	July 15 1958

Liner Notes

JIMMY SMITH

During the years that Jimmy Smith recorded for Blue Note Records (February, 1956 to February, 1963), he led a working trio with Donald Bailey on drums and guitarist Thornel Schwartz, succeeded by Eddie McFadden and finally by Quentin Warren. Whatever the album concept in programming, whether trio or with a guest soloist or in a large jam session ensemble and whether live or in the studio, the organist's working unit would usually be the core of proceedings.

On those occasions when a guest drummer was present, it was most often Art Blakey. And on those occasions when a guest guitarist was called in, it was always Kenny Burrell. And while the organist's regular guitarists, most notably McFadden, were fine players, the encounters between Burrell and Smith were obviously meetings of peers, equal in the mastery of sound and technique and equal in creativity, feeling and versatility.

When the popularity of organ groups with guitar, drums and sometimes tenor saxophone hit its peak, many guitarists found it difficult to record or gig outside of this format. By this time, Burrell was already well established, and the bulk of his discography as a leader and a sideman features the more conventional modern jazz instrumentation with piano and bass. So his sessions with Smith give us a welcome opportunity to hear him in another context and perspective.

The nature of the organ and the power of its greatest player seem to inspire in the guitarist a drive and verve that is not evident elsewhere. And he loses none of his lyricism and tonal shadings in the process. Moreover, while guitar, piano and bass blend in sound, overlapping frequencies and interacting overtones, the organ cradles and highlights Burrell's rich, full, round sound.

Kenny Burrell's first appearance with Jimmy Smith was on a quartet date from February 12, 1957 with Lou Donaldson and Art Blakey completing the band. On August 25, 1957 and February 25, 1958 two all star sextet blowing sessions under Smith's leadership took place. The results were issued on The Sermon, House Party and Confirmation. From the first of those dates comes the trio performance of Little Girl Blue on this album.

On February 26, '58, Smith recorded four tunes (released on Softly As A Summer Breeze) with just Burrell and Philly Joe Jones. It might have been the successful results of that date that prompted the organist to go into the studio again with Burrell in a trio context on July 15, 1958. This time the drummer was Donald Bailey, and six tunes were done. Motorin' Along and Since I Fell For You were issued as a single, but only Motorin' Along appeared on the Home Cookin' album. The four heretofore unissued titles make up the second side on this album.

On May, 24, 1959, the same trio recorded nine tunes, of which only I Got A Woman (also on Home Cookin') has been released. A few weeks later on June 16, this trio with Percy France added on tenor sax taped six tunes, five of which completed the Home Cookin' album, while the sixth, Apostrophe, is issued on this album for the first time.

On April 25, 1960, Smith, Burrell and Bailey went into the studio for a marathon session made historic by the addition of Stanley Turrentine. The result was some of the finest, most soulful playing by all four men. The evidence is on two albums, Back To The Chicken Shack and Midnight Special. The one remaining performance from that day, On The Sunny Side Of The Street is contained herein.

Turrentine would, in less than two months, make his first Blue Note album, thus beginning a nine year association during which the tenor saxophonist recorded with Burrell, Horace Parlan, Horace Silver, Art Taylor and others as well as under his own name. He was reunited with Jimmy Smith one more time in 1963 on the Prayer Meetin' album.

Tenor saxophonist Percy France, a soulful, big toned player with a deliberate, yet heartfelt approach to improvisation, began his career in the forties in his native New York, working mostly in the swingtet genre. He was in Bill Doggett's group from 1951 to the beginning of 1956 and can be heard on many of that organist's King sessions. In the late fifties, he freelanced around New York, working with dance bands as well as jazz groups. At the time of this recording, he was working and recording with Sir Charles Thompson. In 1962, he, along with Kenny Burrell, appeared on organist Freddie Roach's debut album for Blue Note.

Apostrophe is France's line and provides a sly, up, bluesy platform for marvelous solos by him, Smith and Burrell. Listen also to Kenny's hard, funky comping, a trait that he does not often get the opportunity to display.

This version of On The Sunny Side Of The Street with Turrentine is reminiscent of Dizzy Gillespie's memorable version in that it is joyous and uplifting, but taken in a smooth, easy gait. No strain.

In fact, everything in this set conveys that feeling of cooking, but with no strain. Each tune finds its own pocket and lays there beautifully. This is the music of mature and soulful improvisers. Nothing to prove, but a lot to say. Listen to the groove that Jimmy finds for Ellington's Just A Lucky So And So and what he does with it.

Burrell's trademark lyricism steals the show on Little Girl Blues and September Song. His guitar sings in pear-shaped tones over Smith's cushion. Although Buddy Johnson's Since I Fell For You and Mitchell Parish's Ruby are most often thought of as ballads, they are given brighter, medium tempo treatment here. And Bye, Bye Blackbird, lest you think Miles had the last word, is a straight out burner.

In July, 1963, Jimmy Smith and Kenny Burrell collaborated on a Verve album entitled Blue Bash. Thereafter, Burrell stayed true to his original course, gigging and recording with bass, drums and sometimes piano. Commercial success carried Jimmy Smith into more and more orchestration and constricting material until it seemed as if he would merely read a new leadsheet and overdub his part. Of course, true jazz outlasted that and other commercial formulas. And Jimmy Smith is becoming active again and applying the principles that he helped to create and which made him the great artist that he is in the first place. In the meantime, his creative peak continues to live through his classic Blue Note recordings.

—Michael Cuscuna