the rix mix

"The Incredible" Jimmy Smith, the incomparable jazz organist, died last week at age 76. Jimmy wasn't the first to play jazz on an organ, but in the 1950's he popularized a boppish style of playing that took advantage of the Hammond B3, a model that is still manufactured. Jimmy's organ registration - his particular setting of the instrument's stops & drawbars - was an integral part of his sound, with subsequent artists trying either to imitate it or find a sound of their own. Even though I was a rock organist, my choice of the Vox Continental had something to do with Jimmy's wide influence.

In the wake of Jimmy Smith's early LPs for Blue Note, bars & lounges began featuring organ trios; drums, a guitar or sax, & the organist playing the bass patterns on the Hammond's 25 foot pedals - a difficult art to master - some prominent jazz organists never did. Newark had an especially lively jazz organ scene; in the summer funky organ trios played Jersey shore clubs from Asbury Park to Wildwood, especially those off-the-boardwalk places catering to a predominantly black clientele. Philadelphia, where Jimmy started his career, was also a hot spot for the music. Jimmy Smith played many of these venues. Unfortunately, I was too young to get inside for this kind of music in its prime, although I did catch a little of it from the outside, in Atlantic City early Sixties.

Jimmy Smith's origina Blue Note albums are uniformly very good to great. In the Sixties he switched to Verve & made records that were more "pop" by the standards of that era, many with big bands & top arrangers like Lalo Schifrin & Oliver Nelson that sound cool today, & a couple of memorable collaborations with Wes Montgomery & a young George Benson. It was those Verve LPs that I most often went to in my WFMU programs. Maybe Jimmy's music wasn't best served when I programmed "The Theme from The Munsters," "Jingle Bells," or his hit record "Walk On the Wild Side," but they were enjoyable, surprisingly well-made novelties in the free form context, & of course I also aired his Blue Note classics. Jimmy made one awful vocal album with a hilarious song-recitative titled "Astrology," in which he runs through the sexy & dangerous attributes of the 12 zodiac signs. So bya Jimmy, you're incredible, a musician of talent, class & good humor.

Check out these classic Jimmy Smith album covers: Chicken Shack, Movin' On, The Cat, Crazy Baby! (a fav, includes Mack the Knife & A Night in Tunisia), Bashin', Home Cookin'. The apostrophe of course signifies soul.