I have to say that the late 1950's and early 60's had some of the best damn jazz organ music ever! People like Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Don Patterson and Freddie Roach are some of the pioneers to grace that amazing instrument.
i was about 17yrs.old to see jimmy smith and wes montgomery in philly franklin field pouring down rain..unfortunately wes died the night before I waited in pouring back stage to hear jimmy. when he was done i introduced my self he invited to to sit in his mercedes, couple ladies sat in the back, we talked about an hour about the organ, heavy smoker, he loved about the B.. I love Jimmy
Luckily I heard Wes play live with his brothers in Boston just before he passed. One of the greatest jazz nights of my life and I have heard most of the icons in person. I was devastated when I heard of his passing.
I'm 84 and grew up in the golden age of jazz. A cousin owned a club called The blue note near the loop in Chicago that had a section for youngsters. I saw so many great groups starting in about 1955. It breaks my heart that todays kids do not have that opportunity.
I was blessed to see Jimmy Smith At California State University Sacramento in California in March 1995 and was sitting in the front row. A truly memorable experience! A genius on the Hammond organ! Thanks for posting.
He regularly performed in Columbus, Ohio, at our annual Summer Jazz Fest. I saw him there in 1989 and again in 1990. A great outdoor venue, were I could sit or stand just a few feet from him. I had been a fan of his since the 1970s, when I was in college, and that is when I began collecting his albums,....and later on his music on CDs. Columbus has always been a place where the Jazz musicians of our world visit. It is where Ohio State University is located, and we're only 100 miles from Cleveland, Ohio.
- "Give Irving my love" (theme); "Walk on the wild side" by Mack David, Elmer Bernstein; "Mack the Knife" by Marc Blitzstein, Kurt Weill; "The champ" by Dizzy Gillespie. (Songs) - Jimmy Smith, organ; Quentin Warren, electrc guitar; Donald Bailey, drums.
Merci beaucoup for posting this. I was just listening, but then read a comment and started looking at the images. Kudos to the camera crew and the editing. It really adds to the performance.
Walk on the Wild Side was a well played hit my freshman year in high school. Even AM radio played it often. No idea how far it made it on Billboard or any top ten but…
At 8:40 the host begins to describe the history of the organ in jazz, and rightfully attributes it's rise in popularity to Jimmy Smith in 1956. That said, he omits a critical aspect of this rise in popularity: the addition of the Hammond B-3 & C-3 models to the product line. These models debuted the harmonic percussion effect, which is a huge part of the B-3 sound, and the ability to manage staccato effects changed what an artist could do on the instrument. It became a unique voice in popular music, and swiftly became the must-have organ for black America's music, especially gospel and jazz, but later on in the early 60's, soul jazz, R&B, & rock and roll. That percussion effect made playing fast be-bop lines possible; before that, there was only a soft attack available, and that just wasn't very compelling against a backdrop of articulate phrasing on horns, pianos and guitars that was commonplace in 1950's jazz. Jimmy Smith is an unparalleled champion of the B-3. When it was introduced to the marketplace, he acquired one immediately, holed up for months, and dug in to master it. Those first recordings are remarkable for their stamina alone, but the intense hard bop swing, Smith's enormous chops and that Hammond harmonic percussion were a revelation. Smith was truly a man of vision and a bold, fearless pioneering spirit.
Thank you so much for posting this video, I've seen it a bunch of times over the past few years....it might be the best video upload I've seen on RU-vid, it's truly the awesomessttt!!!!!!!
I love this video, it is spectacular. Twin 31’s sound tremendous at his mastery hand. Check out just before 11:00 min in, Mack the Knife - his playing vibrato style bouncing over the reverb within the fast spin of the 31’s - it’s just so marvelous and sublimely executed. The band is cool af too, but Mr Smith is something else.
At about 11:31 a Penny-Owsley decal appears on the treble end of the upped manual. Penny-Owsley was a Piano and Hammond Organ dealer in the LA Area that existed roughly from 1944 to 1968 (bought out by Sherman & Clay, who are now having their own problems), they were notorious for voiding the warranty on any Hammond organ sold from their store found connected to a Leslie.
Jimmy Smith and his trio are from way back in my youth. They are and were true artists. They belittle today's rap, down to the ground! These people are sooooo great and gave us real enjoyment in listing to music. They are definetely missed but thank goodness their music was preserved on recordings. It let's the world know what a true tallant is all about...Love it!!!!!
yes, it´s like the ships of the past belittle the aeroplanes of today - why compare things, that couldn´t be compared? i don´t like this, everywhere on youtube people get in serious hateful fights about this - so, he who is the bestest baseball player could never match with the bestest ping pong player, or something like that - i´m sure jimmy couldn´t rap like the good ones today, which includes, the rappers of today could hardly play hammond like him, still they give many many people real enjoyment, using speech and words in a way they have never been used before,. like jimmy used the hammond in a way that has´nt been there before - seen? you wouldn´t want a fan of other music talk the music of your taste in the ground - please think it over and leave this stuff out... he´s good, and barbara dennerlein is as well, you agree? anyway, i agree that it´s very nice, that these old recordings exist, sometimes i drown in youtube, haha... cheers............... :-)
It is interesting that this organ is equipped with 31-H Leslies, visible at the beginning, end and about 2 minutes in (the 122 was introduced in 1963, a year after this show aired.
From everything I've read, Jimmy's preference was the twin tallboy 31-Hs. Only two speeds, but he was never really one to use the chorale speed when he was playing through a three-speed model like the 122.
I can’t imagine what it must have been like as a kid back then, to tune in to the tele and see a guy making an organ sound like that, and then proceeding to play with his chin! I’m guessing pretty mind blowing.
Heard Jimmy many times live in the 60's. Great player but didn't feature his guitar players enough. Thornell Schwartz (a friend) worked with him and also Groove. I wish there was more of his playing in organ trio setting available. Super nice guy. A gentleman. He'd let me sit-in and was very encouraging.
Your friend Mr. Schwartz sounded great on all of The Incredible`s recordings! Loved his intro to Caravan on Jimmy Smith at Club Baby Grand Vol. 2. Also great on Larry Young`s stuff.
@@LongwingSeagull He once referred to Larry as the Thelonious Monk of the organ. He was such a nice guy. He would let me sit in with Groove when I was in my teens.
@@genec8393 Cool stories. Larry did have a different approach to the organ I think. I`ll have to go back and listen to some of his stuff and see if I can get the Monkishness in his playing.
Guess Jimmy Smith ain't to everyone's likin'. I just got told to "please turn that down a bit" while (admittedly) having this fantastic performance turned up a little loud while writing here at work . . .
@@jswillis73 we, the ones who got soul, are the master race - let´s fight the other ones down who think and feel different and therefor have no soul (same goes for animals, no soul ever!) - and the ones who think this music is inferior, who come for instance from classical music, are superior to us, so they have to fight us down - such is life and it has nothing to do with arrogance...
the gold standard of jazz organ for me. which is not to put down any of the many great organists that there are and have been. it's all good. best should really not enter into it. peace
As best as I can tell so far, it appears to be mostly some combination of 2 or more of the first 4 drawbars on the upper manual, maybe scooping out the sub-harmonic some, and a combo of the first 2 drawbars on the lower manual. His Leslies on this are either on fast or non-rotating because of single speed motors (no slow spin setting).
I actually know and have played with Donald Bailey, unfortunately he can no longer function and has been taken in by family in Southern California. In later years he played Chromatic Harmonica and various band instruments to varying abilities.
+Carson Maccagnone The opening tune is ''Walk On The Wild Side'' from magnificent Jimmy Smith's ''Bashin': The Unpredictable Jimmy Smith'' (1962) album.
I wasn't too happy when Jimmy jumped over to Verve Records abandoning his native Blues Way label. I wasn't crazy about an over glossed orchestra lead by Oliver Nelson practically over shadowing Jimmy's original 3 piece quartet & drowning out crucial riffs only to be heard or left behind during the Blues Way era. I guess Verve offered him a deal he couldn't refuse.
I like his Verve stuff but I love his Blue Note stuff. No doubt the Blue Note material is more grittier and gives more of a personal spotlight to Jimmy's craft.
I disagree heavily. Jazz can be deeply appreciated by people who don't play one musical instrument or even wright music. All music can be boring and all music can be an acquired taste to listeners.
