Jimmy Smith

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Jimmy Smith

Jimmy Smith [ dʒɪmi smɪθ ] (actually James Oscar Smith ) (* 8. December 1928 in Norristown , Pennsylvania , † 8. February 2005 in Phoenix , Arizona ) was a US -American Jazz organist .

Smith is considered the most important innovator of organ playing in modern jazz . He revolutionized the use of the B-3 Hammond organ in a way that justifies a division of the history of the organ in jazz into a period before Jimmy Smith and a period with and after him. He made the Hammond sound popular around the world and is a role model for many later organists and keyboardists . His trio concept with organ, electric  guitar and drums (without bass) was often copied and in the 50s and 60s led to a veritable flood of combos with the same line-up, which were very popular at that time. The organ trio is considered classic today.

Live and act

After completing military service in his hometown, Smith studied double bass at the Hamilton School in 1948 and piano at the Horenstein School of Music in 1949/50. He then worked in regional bands and from 1951 as an R&B pianist with Bobby Edwards , Herb Scott , Johnny Sparrow and Don Gardner . It wasn't until 1954 that he turned to the organ after hearing Wild Bill Davis . He initially retired to a warehouse for a year and tried out new sounds and playing techniques for himself on the instrument, which at the time was regarded as the "poor man's organ" and was almost only used in churches. After doing well in Philadelphia with it, he made his appearance at Café Bohemia in New York City . He made his first recordings as a leader in 1956 on the Blue Note label. His first LP was titled A New Sound ... A New Star ... Jimmy Smith At The Organ . Legend has it that record producer and owner of Blue Note Alfred Lion was so enthusiastic about Jimmy Smith's music that he declared he wanted to quit his job. Instead, he wanted to tour around with the organist in the future so that he could hear him play every evening. However, he did not carry out his threat. From 1956 to 1961, Jimmy Smith recorded material for more than 30 LPs on Blue Note. The high points of his recording career are the LPs Back At The Chicken Shack and Midnight Special from 1960. In 1962, Jimmy Smith switched to the Verve label , where he recorded numerous, also commercially very successful, records, including many with big band accompaniment (including many with Oliver Nelson and several others, such as Billy Byers , Claus Ogerman , Lalo Schifrin and Tom McIntosh ).

With his funky style of playing, which is strongly influenced by blues and gospel , he is an important representative of hard bop and soul jazz . He made more than 150 records in a career spanning more than 50 years. With hits like Got My Mojo Workin or Walk on the Wild Side , Jimmy Smith had extraordinary success for a jazz musician, also with the general public. His musical partners included tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine , guitarists Kenny Burrell , Thornell Schwartz and Grant Green as well as arrangers Oliver Nelson and Lalo Schifrin . The drummers Donald Bailey and Grady Tate should also be mentioned here. He has also recorded with Wes Montgomery ( Jimmy & Wes - The Dynamic Duo ; Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes , 1966). When the synthesizers replaced the Hammond in the early 1970s , he retired to Los Angeles , where he ran a supper club and sporadically released new albums. Only when the organ experienced a new boom with acid jazz did it return to the international stage in the 1990s.

Style of play

Smith had three fundamentally different playing styles, which he used depending on the character of his songs. For fast pieces he placed the bass line in his left hand and only used the organ's pedals to create short accents on the quarter notes or to mark the bass passages to be emphasized. With the improvisation of the right hand, he set melody lines against it, which derive their tension from the contrast between long sustained recumbent tones and rapid drive. The chords of the middle voices in such pieces were mainly carried by the guitarist. In slower pieces, the bass line fell completely on the pedal, freeing up the left hand for playing short, percussive accents with just a few notes. Smith used an at first glance confusing individual style in very slow ballads ( Laura ): Since polyphonic chords in the left hand position would sound uncomfortable, Smith moved these chords into his right hand and led the melody with his left hand. Other jazz organists achieve the same effect by crossing their hands.

Prizes and awards

Jimmy Smith was for years on the poll winning the jazz magazine Down Beat in the category organ subscribed, the only magazine in 1964 had specially introduced for him. In 2005 he received the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship .

Rolling Stone magazine chose his album The Sermon! 2013 in his list The 100 Best Jazz Albums at number 84.

effect

Jimmy Smith lives on in the younger generation , especially through his song Root Down (And Get It) . The Beastie Boys , a New York hip-hop - band , attacked Root Down in 1994 again and released their version on the album Ill Communication . This reissued version of Root Down also soon achieved cult status, not least because it was peppered with original samples from Jimmy Smith's piece. The video for Root Down shows u. a. also the record cover of Jimmy Smith's Root Down (And Get It) , while Beastie Boy MCA raps the line "Jimmy Smith is my man, I want to give him a pound".

Discography (selection)

  • A New Sound, A New Star: Jimmy Smith At The Organ (1956)
  • At Club Baby Grand (1956)
  • A Date With Jimmy Smith (1957)
  • The Sermon (1957/58)
  • Softly as a Summer Breeze (1958)
  • Cool Blues (1958)
  • Home Cookin '(1959)
  • Crazy! Baby (1960)
  • Prayer Meetin '(1960)
  • Back At The Chicken Shack (1960)
  • Midnight Special (1960)
  • Bashin ': The Unpredictable Jimmy Smith (1962)
  • Any Number Can Win (1963)
  • The Cat (1964)
  • Organ Grinder Swing (1965)
  • Got My Mojo Workin '(1965)
  • Peter and the Wolf (1966)
  • Stay Loose (1968)
  • Jimmy Smith and the Trio - Pleyel, Nov 20th (1968)
  • Jimmy Smith and the Trio - Pleyel, Dec. 1st (1969)
  • Root Down (1972)
  • Bluesmith (1972)
  • Off The Top (1982)
  • Fourmost (1990) live from Fat Tuesday’s
  • Fourmost Return (1990)
  • The Master (1993)
  • Damn! (1995)
  • Dot Com Blues (2001)
  • Legacy (2005)

As a guest musician (selection)

Charts

date title Chart placement Weeks in the chart
May 15, 1965 monster 5 5
October 23, 1965 Organ Grinder Swing 2 11
April 30, 1966 Got My Mojo Workin ' 1 22nd
17th September 1966 Hoochie Cooche Man 7th 10
7th January 1967 "Bucket"! 12 10
July 8, 1967 Jimmy & Wes The Dynamic Duo 10 12
December 9, 1967 Respect 3 26th
July 6, 1968 Stay Loose ... Jimmy Smith Sings Again 40 3
20th July 1968 Jimmy Smith's Greatest Hits! 29 8th
November 30, 1968 Livin 'It Up! 41 8th

Jazz musician in the tradition of Smith

literature

documentary

Web links

Commons : Jimmy Smith  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Hans-Jürgen Schaal The Hammond Groove
  2. ↑ Rolling Stone: The 100 Best Jazz Albums . Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  3. ^ Billboard: Jimmy Smith: Chart history , accessed February 10, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Smith, Jimmy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith, James Oscar (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz organist
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Norristown, Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 2005
Place of death Phoenix (Arizona)