Jimmy Smith - Special Guests
Released - 1984
Recording and Session Information
Manhattan Towers, NYC, August 25, 1957
Lee Morgan, trumpet #1; Curtis Fuller, trombone #2; Jimmy Smith, organ; Eddie McFadden, guitar #1; Donald Bailey, drums.
tk.8 'S Wonderful
tk.9 Blue Room
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, June 13, 1960
Stanley Turrentine, tenor sax; Jimmy Smith, organ; Quentin Warren, guitar; Sam Jones, bass; Donald Bailey, drums.
tk.2 Smith Walk
tk.3 Lonesome Road
Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, January 31, 1963
Jimmy Smith, organ; Grant Green, guitar; Donald Bailey, drums.
tk.7 Organic Greenery (aka Blues For Little Jim)
tk.17 Day In, Day Out
Track Listing
| Side One | ||
| Title | Author | Recording Date |
| Smith Walk | Jimmy Smith | June 13 1960 |
| Lonesome Road | Austin-Shilkret | June 13 1960 |
| Blue Room | L. Hart-R. Rodgers | August 25 1957 |
| Side Two | ||
| S Wonderful | Gershwin-Gershwin | August 25 1957 |
| Organic Greenery | Jimmy Smith | January 31 1963 |
| Day In, Day Out | Mercer-Bloom | January 31 1963 |
Liner Notes
The Blue Note vaults are still rich in unissued material. Probably no artist was more prolific than Jimmy Smith with 32 issued albums and more than 7 more in the can. Most of the unissued material features Smith's regular trio, often with Lou Donaldson added. But his album brings together the best of the remaining unissued albums, all special collaborations with other artists.
Like Smith, Stanley Turrentine is a total player who can serve up funky blues and soulful ballads with a sophistication and intelligence that never betray his big-toned earthy feeling. His range has allowed him to adapt to any musical situation without ever losing a shred of his musical identity. And that's no easy feat when you consider that his own albums have covered a wide spectrum and that his sideman appearances included albums with Max Roach, Smith, Horace Parlan and one magnificent encounter with tenor saxophonist Ike Quebec (Congo Lament, Blue Note LT-1089).
The first musical meeting of Turrentine and Smith on April 15, 1960 produced the albums Midnight Special, Back At The Chicken Shack and one tune of On The Sunny Side. By dramatic comparison, the version of June 13, presented on this album, produced only "Smith Walk and "Lonesome Road". A third title, "Organic Greenery" was attempted but never realized. The low yield may have resulted from a bass in the group. Smith, who had attempted to record with a bass only once before, is the undisputed master of the organ's bass foot pedals. They are so integral to his playing that the restriction of not using them may have slowed his normal pace of output. Or perhaps it was one of those days where everyone's energy peaked early.
Nonetheless, we are treated to another 16 minutes of fine Smith-Turrentine interaction, with an added element of interest in the presence of the late bassist Sam Jones. It would be another two and a half years before Jimmy and Stanley would record their final collaboration, issued as Prayer Meetin'. That February 8, 1963 session would also be Jimmy's last for Blue Note.
A week prior to that final session, on January 31 1963, the organist documented his only recorded meeting with the late Grant Green, the ubiquitous, brilliant resident guitarist at Blue Note. It seems surprising in the Blue Note system of rotating players like a repertory company that this ideal combination would not have occurred before 1963. But Smith seemed to have standing policy of recording with his working guitarists, deviating from it only occasionally to use Kenny Burrell, which whom he had a long relationship.
Fortunately, someone spotted the oversight of such a logical pairing during Jimmy's final dates for the label. The result was the album I'm Movin' On (a rather ironic title in light of Smith's label switch at the time) and two more tunes which are included here: "Day In, Day Out" and "Organic Greenery". (It is a strange coincidence that this blues would share an album with the session done two and a half years earlier at which it was first attempted.) In clarity, power, versatility and imagination, Green and Smith were perfectly matched equals. We sure could have used a lot more of them playing together.
Jimmy Smith recorded four marathon sextet jam sessions for Blue Note, three of which offered a front line of trumpet, alto sax and tenor sax. But for the second jam, on August 25, 1957, trombone replaced the tenor. The trombonist was Curtis Fuller, who in the space of five weeks would have the distinction of being the only trombone soloist to record with Jimmy Smith, Bud Powell and John Coltrane in the same year, he also recorded four albums of his own for Blue Note. A few years later, he founded the Jazztet with Benny Golson and then made Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers into a sextet. He has continued to be one of the strongest trombonists and composers in modern jazz.
Fuller's feature is "Blue Room", supported only by organ and drums. The regular trio reassembles for Lee Morgan's sparkling performance of "'S Wonderful". Alto saxophonist George Coleman, the third horn did not have a feature spot, but the output of the session was enormous. The sextet with Eddie McFadden and Kenny Burrell trading off on guitar made five lengthy titles that have been issued on The Sermon, House Party and Confirmation. (Incidentally the drum chair on the two tunes on Confirmation was mistakenly credited to Art Blakey instead of Donald Bailey). In addition, a trio feature for Kenny Burrell appeared on On The Sunny Side.
If that ain't a day's work in itself, the three horns had already recorded Lee Morgan's City Lights album earlier that afternoon!
The unifying fabric throughout the three sessions on this album is, of course, Jimmy Smith. Also everpresent is the solid, tasty sparkplug drumming of Donald Bailey. After freelancing in his native Philadelphia in the early fifties with such locals as Lee Morgan, he joined the original Jimmy Smith trio is September, 1955 and remained until the end of 1963 when he settled ion Los Angeles. There he freelanced with Gerald Wilson, Joe Pass, Jack Wilson, Gene Ammons and others and worked regularly at various times with Hampton Hawes, The Three Sounds and the Harold-Land-Bobby Hutcherson quintet. In the seventies, he reportedly began plying harmonica as well as drums and working more commercial venues.
Eddie McFadden worked the rhythm and blues circuit out of Philadelphia until January, 1957 when he replaced original member Thornel Schwartz in Smith's trio. After his departure in 1959, he worked frequently with organist Johnny Hammond Smith in the early and mid sixties. His replacement Quentin Warren stayed through 1963 and possibly longer, but ultimately dropped out of music professionally.
Times change for better and for worse. If you tried to put together artists of the stature represented here today, the lawyers would burn up the phone lines and generate 20 reams of paper. And if it ever got to the studio, the managers would outnumber the musicians.
-MICHAEL CUSCUNA
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