8-21282-2

Jimmy Smith - Standards

Released - 1998

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.10 Just A Lucky So And So
tk.14 Ruby

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, May 24, 1959
Jimmy Smith, organ; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Donald Bailey, drums.

tk.1 It Might As Well Be Spring
tk.2 Mood Indigo
tk.4 While We're Young
tk.6 I Didn't Know What Time It Was
tk.9 But Beautiful
tk.10 The Last Dance
tk.13 Memories Of You

Track Listing

Title	Author	Recording Date
Little Girl Blue	R. Rodgers-L. Hart	August 25 1957
Bye Bye Blackbird	M. Dixon-R. Henderson	July 15 1958
I'm 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
I Didn't Know What Time It Was	R. Rodgers-L. Hart	May 24 1959
Memories Of You	A. Razaf-E. Blake	May 24 1959
But Beautiful	J. Burke-J. Van Heusen	May 24 1959
Mood Indigo	B. Bigard-D. Ellington	May 24 1959
While We're Young	Wilder-Palitz-Engvick	May 24 1959
It Might As Well Be Spring	R. Rodgers-O.Hammerstein	May 24 1959
The Last Dance	Jimmy Smith	May 24 1959

Liner Notes

THIS is not your typical Jimmy Smith collection. Fans of the speaker-rattling, gutbucket-blues-blowing, chicken-shack-having Jimmy Smith may be surprised. This is a mellow, blacktie, date-night, smooth-as-silk affair, Jimmy Smith romancing the Standards with an élan and diffidence that perfectly captures the uptown style of nightclubbing in the late 1950s, back when folks got dressed up, made an entrance, and expected elegant service; Jimmy Smith delivers.

For those not familiar with his biography, Jimmy Smith comes from Norristown, PA., but studied music in Philadelphia, one of the major centers for the development of the Hammond organ sound (the city produced Shirley Scott, Jimmy McGriff and Charles Earland, among others). Like most organ players, he started out on piano, and amazingly, only switched to the Hammond three years before his recording debut. He created an immediate sensation when he seemed to burst onto the national jazz scene in 1 956 by way of his first Blue Note recordings. His style was light-years ahead of the big chordal organ players that had preceded him, with a pianistic-fast right hand and a great solid groove coming from the foot pedals that redefined the instrument and made bass players irrelevant in organ groups from that moment on.

Jimmy Smith was totally self-taught on the Hammond. He didn't start on the instrument until he was in his late twenties, and then, as legend has it, he locked himself in the woodshed for three months, and when he emerged, he emerged full-blown. He is the Charlie Parker of the organ; after him, there was no looking back. On this album, however, he often does look back, returning to the classic chordal sound (with wide vibrato) that has defined jazz organ playing since the mid 1940s. For example, his solo on "But Beautiful" is heartbreaking in both its nostalgia and melodic qualities. Yet it is very clear that he has moved beyond the historic cliché or the facile pianistic approach, using many subtle shadings and hues of nuance, available by way of the various draw bars, volume pedal and chorus settings, to achieve a totally unique and very modern approach to the organ.

As Jimmy Smith's recording career developed throughout the fifties and sixties, he seemed to become type cast by the many jam sessions he lead, a kind of musical ringmaster of spirited blowing dates. Often, he recorded the blues—fast blues, slow blues, groove blues, all kinds of blues—mixed with bebop tunes, primarily those that were current at informal get-togethers everywhere. These blowing dates would usually feature one or more guest soloists, and a single tune would occasionally take up an entire side of an album, a bold statement in the 50s when time was of the essence. But as we hear on these lovely ballads and bounce tunes, there is a controlled, "tipping" side of Jimmy Smith that is every bit as captivating.

It should be noted that this collection is as much a feature for Kenny Burrell as it is for Smith. The guitarist takes the lead on many of the songs and provides the steady 4/4 comping—derived, perhaps, from Freddie Green's work with Basie — that is a touchstone of the organ trio as pioneered by Jimmy Smith; Burrell's solos are uniformly wonderful, with a relaxed, quiet kind of drama. Drummer Donald Bailey, another homeboy from Philadelphia, really has got the sweetest job in town, just sitting there, mixing the salad in the background. Altogether, the atmosphere created on this record is one of total relaxation, an almost haunted sense of peace.

So this collection truly does set the Standard for Jimmy Smith: the songs are familiar, maybe even traditional, and everything about the organ player raises the bar for all who dare to follow.

—BEN SIDRAN