Jimmy Smith
James Oscar Smith (December 8, 1928 – February 8, 2005 Norristown, PA)) was an American jazz musician who helped popularize the Hammond B-3 organ, creating a link between jazz and 1960s soul music.
In 2005, Smith was awarded the NEA Jazz Masters Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honor that America bestows upon jazz musicians.
Smith 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 Note‘s Alfred Lion immediately signed Smith to the label. 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, recorded around 40 sessions for Blue Note in just eight years beginning in 1956. Albums from this period include The Sermon!, House Party, Home Cooking’, Midnight Special, Back at the Chicken Shack and Prayer Meetin’.
Smith signed to the Verve label in 1962. His first album, Bashin’, sold well and for the first time Smith worked with a big band, led by Oliver Nelson. Further big band collaborations followed with composer/arranger Lalo Schifrin for The Cat and guitarist Wes Montgomery, with whom he recorded two albums: The Dynamic Duo and Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes. Other albums from this period include Blue Bash! and Organ Grinder Swing with Kenny Burrell, The Boss with George Benson, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Got My Mojo Working, and Hoochie Coochie Man.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Smith almost always performed live, in a trio, consisting of organ, guitar and drums. The Jimmy Smith Trio performed “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” and “The Sermon” in the film Get Yourself a College Girl (1964).