I shouldn’t think many of you know of Jimmy Smith, perhaps you’d recognise a tune or two if it chanced your ears, but he died yesterday aged seventy-nine and I’m taking the chance to preach the word.
You say trumpet to a jazz man he’ll think of Miles Davis. Bass is Mingus, sax is Coltrane or Parker. The Hammond organ belonged to Jimmy Smith. He got rid of the tremolo, played bass with his feet, chords/melodies with his left hand and the horn lines with his right – the first time I heard The Organ Grinder’s Swing I went to look up the bassist and found there wasn’t one, it was all him. It sounds amazing. Miles Davis called him ‘The Eighth Wonder of the World’ and even when the Hammond wasn’t in fashion Smith kept on playing away – if an organist was needed he was the one people wanted.
It may only be a short little eulogy but .. you all need to hear his music. I’ll even send you a song or two if you want. He was a legend and deserves to be heard.
Oh and uh is it only me that can see a little bit of good old Venu in that picture?