Jimmy Smith (1929-2005)

 Jimmy Smith, a one-man revolution in jazz, passed away on February 8th, 2005. Words cannot describe the singular impact that this man had on the history of modern music. Back in 1955, according to Ira Gitler, pianist Freddie Redd barged into the Blue Note offices in Manhattan with a "mouthful of something elses" about this guy in Philadelphia doing crazy things with the Hammond organ in jazz. This was a big deal at the time as the Hammond organ was the instrument of the church and gospel, and jazz was a secular "devil's music." Many thought that what Smith was doing was profane, especially considering such song titles as "The Sermon!" and "Confirmation." But Smith was in earnest, injecting the soul of the church into the rhythms of jazz, and doing it with both fervor and style. Always impeccably dressed, Smith would come off the stand at the end of the night drenched in sweat as if he had just been through an exorcism and the organ was his confessor. As Michael Cuscuna writes in the liner notes to Cool Blues, when Jimmy played he was "a man in convulsions, face contorted, crouched over in apparent agony, fingers flying, feet dancing over the petals." Playing jazz was a religious experience for Jimmy, his band, and his audience.

By bringing the organ into prominence and integrating the dynamics of gospel, Smith coined the term "soul jazz" - the direct antecedant of the genre that still bears its name. On top of that, Jimmy restless innovations caught the ears of Miles Davis and James Brown, both of whom went on to innovate the genres of jazz fusion and funk based on the ideas that Jimmy initially laid down.

It should be noted that Jimmy Smith only started playing the organ at age 28. By 29, he was a virtuoso. Three years later, just one year after Freddie Redd burst into the Blue Note offices, Jimmy Smith was dropping dates and touring the country in anticipation of an immense and amazing career. Jimmy Smith died of natural causes at the age of 76.

To quote the Beastie Boys, "Jimmy Smith is the man. I'm gonna kick it root down."

Essential Recordings

:

• House Party
• The Sermon
• Groovin' at Smalls
• Home Cookin'
• Cool Blues
• Root Down

Available on Blue Note and Verve Records.