Remembering organist Jimmy Smith who was instrumental in popularizing the Hammond organ. While the electric organ had been used in jazz by Fats Waller, Count Basie, Wild Bill Davis and others, Smiths virtuoso improvisation technique on the Hammond helped to popularize the electric organ as a jazz and blues instrument. When he was nine, Smith won a Philadelphia radio talent contest as a boogie-woogie pianist. After a stint in the navy, he began furthering his musical education in 1948, with a year at Royal Hamilton College of Music, then the Leo Ornstein School of Music in Philadelphia in 1949. He began exploring the Hammond organ in 1951. From 1951 to 1954 he played piano, then organ in Philly R&B bands like Don Gardner and the Sonotones. He switched to organ permanently in 1954 after hearing Wild Bill Davis. He purchased his first Hammond organ, rented a warehouse to practice in and emerged after little more than a year. Upon hearing him playing in a Philadelphia club, Blue Notes Alfred Lion immediately signed him to the label and his second album, The Champ, quickly established Smith as a new star on the jazz scene. He was a prolific recording artist and, as a leader, dubbed The Incredible Jimmy Smith, he recorded around forty sessions for Blue Note in just eight years beginning in 1956. Albums from this period include The Sermon!, House Party, Home Cookin, Midnight Special, Back at the Chicken Shack and Prayer Meetin. During the 1950s and 1960s, Smith recorded with some of the great jazz musicians of the day such as Kenny Burrell, George Benson, Grant Green, Stanley Turrentine, Lee Morgan, Lou Donaldson, Tina Brooks, Jackie McLean, Grady Tate and Donald Bailey. The Jimmy Smith Trio performed When Johnny Comes Marching Home and The Sermon in the 1964 film Get Yourself a College Girl. https://youtube/watch?v=XDVj7qAxAm8&index=1&list=RDXDVj7qAxAm8
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 11:37:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015