Jackson told me something that surprised me very much. In all his years of sitting behind a B3 organ, the original Hammond company never gave Jimmy Smith an endorsement deal. Lawrence Hammond should have been ashamed of that. Jimmy Smith was responsible for selling SO many Hammond organs.

One good thing that will come of this possibly is there will be some nice compilations of his work, which still sounds so funky even today.

As far as Laurens Hammond is concerned; that isn't surpising when you consider that he would never even endorse Don Leslie's great invention. If it weren't for that, Laurens' organ would have never even survived WWII.

[This message was edited by Webb Kline on 09 February 2005 at 06:14 AM.]

The bad news keeps on comin' ....

[...on second thought, I have lots of Hammond recorded from various sources and I believe the one I have of the aforementioned Misty is by Richard Holmes. I'm sure I have Trouble in Mind as well as many other Smith tunes, some with Kenny Burrell and Wes.] I'll ceraintly be looking for the recent releases mentioned here.

[This message was edited by Jerry Overstreet on 09 February 2005 at 10:34 AM.]

As much as I love "B-3" music,I only have one album by J.S. "The Amazing Jimmy Smith Trio,Live At The Village Gate".(Metro M-521)
I bought it 1/10/67,for $1.37.
Sure am sorry to hear this.

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  ~ ~
  ©¿©  It don't mean a thang,   
  mm   if it ain't got that twang.
       www.ntsga.com

I worked opposite Jimmy's trio for 2 weeks in Denver in the mid-70s. He was quite a character. A pilot, too, I believe . . . He was tickled to find out I was a Sagittarius, too--whatever that means.

May he rest in peace. What a legacy.

My first Hammond Organ was bought ten years ago. I was playing piano in
small bands around Philadelphia and was so impressed with the incredible
number and variety of sounds you can get with the Hammond that I couldn't
rest until I had my own.

I never did take lessons, just taught myself. First, I learned about the
drawbars and what each one stood for. As time passed, I experimented trying
out all the different sounds. Next came the presets. I tried them out too
but I don't use them very much except when playing ballads or something
sweet and soft.

When it came to the foot pedals, I made a chart of them and put it on the
wall in front of me wo I wouldn't have to look down. My first method was
just using the toe. In the earlier days I was a tap dancer so the transition
to heel and toe playing was made without too much trouble. One thing I
learned was that you have to have a relaxed ankle. I would write out
different bass lines to try for different tempi in order to relax the ankle.
One useful learning technique was to put my favorite records on and then
play the bass line along with them to see if I could play the pedals without
looking down and only occasionally using my chart on the wall. This worked
out fine.

When you are properly co-ordinated, you get an even flow in the bass. Most
often, organists are uneven in their playing of the pedals, heavy here and
light there.

Soon I was putting hands and feet together and achieving co-ordination.

My first job with the organ was at a Philadelphia supper club, playing a duo
with drums. It was here I began further experimentation with different
drawbar settings and using different effects and dynamics. It was before
these audiences that the Jimmy Smith sound evolved.

People always ask me about this sound. This probably is best explained in
my approach to the organ. While others think of the organ as a full
orchestra, I think of it as a horn. I've always been an admirer of Charlie
Parker. . .and I try to sound like him. I wanted that single-line sound like
a trumpet, a tenor or an alto saxophone.

Shortly afterward, I recorded for Blue Note and my records began to get
popular. After seven years with Blue Note (and twenty-one LP's later) I
moved to MGM records. My first big record for them was "Walk on the Wild
Side," from the movie of the same name. On this record I used a sole setting
of 88 8000 001 on the upper manual on B preset, vibrato off, and percussion
on.

After much harassment from fellow organists, fans, and musicians it is my
intention to publish an organ book. This book will show musically exactly
what I find very difficult to explain editorially.

Ever since I was a child, I wanted to play the better type of music, even
classics. I haven't done anything like that, but I'm going to. I'm going to
scare a lot of people with the incredible number of tones on the Hammond
Organ before I die.

I wish I had made the trips to NYC to see him but I never did...

Sorry to hear this sad news..

I will keep his family in my prayers..

t

[This message was edited by Tony Prior on 09 February 2005 at 04:59 PM.]

His bass playing inspired my bass playing. I love the warm, fuzzy, BASS sound he gets. I wish more BASS players played like that! I really like BASS on a bass...not the trebley, popping stuff that IS the sound of (ugh) smooth jazz it seems.

His chords and wild flurries have always given me something to shoot for on pedal steel...not that I've ever actually achieved it, but it was a big part of my steel vision from the very beginning.

Then there was his guitar players...Kenny and Wes pretty much do it for me as far as jazz guitar goes. The natural fit between an L5 and a B3 was one of the happiest accidents of 20th century music. It was those 2 guys that first got me seriously into studying guitar.

I heard that Jimmy started out as a piano tuner besides being a pianist. Club owners would often let their pianos get way out because they new if they could just wait a couple weeks until Jimmy had a booking at their club, they could get it tuned for free.

I wonder how his piano tuners ear first related to the temperament of one of the first electronic "synthesizers"? (the B3)

God bless Jimmy Smith....A true original!

p.s. It's 1AM at the Schmidthaus. Just got home from a lame country gig and "Organ Grinder Swing" is probably waking up the neighbors as I type.

I can recall an album "Jimmy Smith Plays the Standards", which I picked up from a supermarket discount rack about 1968 (nobody wanted it) for $2.00. It was the only Smith album I've found where he frequently used fast leslie with full organ drawbars and block chording. Amazing chord progressions. Throughout his career, you could always feel the emotion in his phrases and mechanical control.

JS made a great contribution to the Hammond and to jazz. We are indebted to him.