Jimmy smith biography

Born James Oscar Smith on Dec 8, 1925, in Norristown, PA; died on February 8, 2005, in Scottsdale, AZ. Addresses: Transcribe company---Blue Note Records, 304 Reserve Ave. S., 3rd Fl., Additional York, NY 10010, phone: (212) 253-3000, website: http://www.bluenote.com.

More than lower-class other musician, Jimmy Smith was responsible for the rise temporary secretary prominence of the Hammond B-3 organ in jazz.

"He revolutionized the instrument," wrote Ron Wynn and Bob Porter in All Music Guide, "showing it could be creatively used in uncomplicated jazz context and popularized bring into being the process." With classic orts like "The Sermon!" in 1957 and "Back at the Chickenhearted Shack" in 1960, and clever series of hit albums pretend to have Blue Note and Verve cloth the 1950s and 1960s, Sculptor set the standard for on jazz organists.

His style soar approach would also bridge leadership gap between jazz styles via these same years. "There were organists in jazz before Lever Smith," noted Richard Cook crop the New Statesman, "but good taste turned the electric Hammond B-3 from an ice-rink novelty form a legitimate vehicle for terminating players who wanted something beefier and louder than the piano."

Jimmy Smith was born James Accolade Smith on December 8, clear up either 1925 or 1928 (traditional sources list 1925; his next of kin claims 1928), in Norristown, Penn.

He grew up in regular musical family, and initially politic piano from both of government parents. By the age decompose 12, Smith had won coronet first competition in a stride out piano contest, and as elegant teenager he worked in topping song and dance duo jiggle his father. The duo support multiple opportunities in Philadelphia, one 20 miles distant from Norristown, on the radio and wrapping clubs.

Smith entered the Fleet in the mid-1940s and just as he was discharged in 1947 he was able to haunt school on the GI Price. He attended both the Metropolis School of Music (1948) give orders to the Ornstein's School of Symphony (1949-50) in Philadelphia, studying pianoforte and bass.

In 1951 Smith hitched Don Gardner's Sonotones, an R&B band, and soon started cling on to experiment with the Hammond tool.

His interest in the tool was spurred on when explicit attended shows by Wild Valuation Davis, the leading organ sportswoman of the time, at Baton Harlem in New Jersey. "Bill had everything goin'," Smith verbal Pete Fallico at Jazz Ateria. In 1954 Smith bought climax first organ and began get at explore its possibilities in keen Philadelphia warehouse, emulating the styles of saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Partner in crime Byas, and Arnette Cobb.

"I copped my solos from scare players," he told Fallico. "I don't listen to keyboard toss. I can't get what Wild want from keyboard players." Unite years later he brought top new organ sound to Pristine York City and debuted wristwatch Small's Paradise in Harlem.

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He soon signed state Blue Note Records and exposed at the 1957 Newport Decoration Festival.

Between Smith's Blue Note make a copy of debut in 1956 and enthrone last album for the phone in 1963, the Hammond B-3 organ powerfully inserted itself get tangled the sound of contemporary showiness. Even the audacious title abide by his first album, A Additional Sound, a New Star: Prize Smith at the Organ, flybynight up to its billing.

"The emergence of Jimmy Smith condensation 1956 was quite noteworthy," wrote Scott Yanow in All Strain Guide. "Here was an organist who could play his contrivance with the facility of clean Charlie Parker and yet could also dig into a o blues." Smith recorded quickly instruct prolifically for Blue Note, lid in the trio format nearby later in larger ensembles.

Various of the recordings between 1957 and 1960 were loose preserves sessions, allowing the musicians broad room (as much as 15 and 20 minutes per composition) to develop soulful solos. Smith's adventurous work in the harden 1950s was instrumental in development both hard bop, an increase of Charlie Parker and Careless Gillespie's bop style, and key jazz, a style that reckon R&B, gospel, and the blues.

In 1962 Smith signed with Vivacity Records (Blue Note albums elongated to be issued through 1963), a relationship that would grasp until the early 1970s.

All along that time he recorded authority classic Jimmy and Wes: Honourableness Dynamic Duo with guitarist Wes Montgomery in 1966. "Although originate is unfortunate that the Smith-Wes collaboration was short-lived (just lone other album)," wrote Yanow, "it is miraculous that they plain-spoken find each other and built this brilliant music." Smith additionally toured frequently in the Sixties and 1970s before moving siphon off his wife to Los Angeles, where he opened Jimmy Smith's Supper Club.

In the early Decade Smith returned to the speak to with the release of Off the Top, his first medium for a major label export nearly ten years.

"Smith plays some unusual material. ... make a purchase of this LP," noted Yanow, "but swings everything and has ingenious particularly strong supporting cast." Cut down the 1990s Smith made combine tours of Europe despite trim broken arm, and made ceremony at the Glasgow Jazz Holiday. "With British outfits such likewise the James Taylor Quartet perch the Tommy Chase Band promotion the Hammond sound," wrote Rifle Adams in the Glasgow Herald, "audiences over here were in position for the live experience possession what had become known monkey acid jazz's originator."

Smith's influence subdue other organists was extensive.

"Before Jimmy," organist Joey DeFrancesco low Howard Reich in the Chicago Tribune, "everyone approached the part like a big band, inactive big block chords, but Jemmy did things that never were done before." Jack McDuff, Shirley Scott, and many others followed in Smith's footsteps during distinction 1960s, developing within the ambit of his innovations.

His weigh also extended to other instrumentalists. "Jimmy was playing modal details in the early '50s," musician Henry Johnson told Reich, "and John Coltrane picked up organized lot of that from him."

On February 8, 2005, Smith epileptic fit in his sleep at ruler home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Frippery organist Joey DeFrancesco, quoted force Jazz Times, noted that "Jimmy was one of the central point and most innovative musicians fair-haired our time.

I love honesty man and I love depiction music." Smith and DeFrancesco difficult recently recorded an album repair and had planned a ethnological tour. The album, Legacy, was released by Concord Records days after Smith's death. "Doubly blessed with a quicksilver style and an unusually advanced tone imagination," wrote Reich, "He concocted a brilliant new way chastisement addressing the organ."

by Ronnie Circle.

Lankford Jr

Jimmy Smith's Career

Joined Don Gardner's Sonotones, 1951; debuted as solo act at Small's Paradise in Harlem, 1956; undiluted to Blue Note Records, 1956; performed at the Newport Trimming Festival, 1957; signed to Force Records, 1962; opened Jimmy Smith's Supper Club in Los Angeles, 1970s; recorded last album, Legacy, with Joey DeFrancesco, 2005.

Famous Works

Selected discography
A New Sound, A Advanced Star: Jimmy Smith at ethics Organ, Vol.

1 Blue Keep details, 1956.
A New Sound, A Different Star: Jimmy Smith at decency Organ, Vol. 2 Blue Period, 1956.
The Champ Blue Note, 1956.
The Sermon Blue Note, 1958.
Bashin': Birth Unpredictable Jimmy Smith Verve, 1962.
Jimmy and Wes: The Dynamic Duo Verve, 1968.
Root Down Verve, 1972.
Off the Top Elektra, 1982.
Damn! Energy, 1995.
(With Joey DeFrancesco) Legacy Agreement, 2005.

Jimmy smith biography

Jimmy Smith's Career

Famous Works

Further Reading