The Unpredictable Jimmy
Smith
Bashin'
Jimmy Smith, Organ
Bob Ashton, Saxophone
Donald Bailey, Drums
George Barrow, Saxophone
Babe Clarke, Saxophone
Jimmy Cleveland, Trombone
Jerry Dodgion, Reeds, Saxophone
George Duvivier, Bass
Barry Galbraith, Guitar
Urbie Green, Trombone
Thomas Mitchell, Trombone
Joe Newman, Trumpet
Ernie Royal, Trumpet
Doc Severinsen, Trumpet
Ed Shaughnessy, Drums
Quentin Warren, Guitar
Joe Wilder, Trumpet
Phil Wood, Reeds, Saxophone
Britt Woodman, Trombone
Arranged and Conducted
by
Oliver Nelson
Produced by 
Recorded at
Van Gelder Studios
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Rudy Van Gelder, Engineer
Recorded 1962
Catalog Number:
314 539 061
Format: CD
Release Date: Oct 28 1997
Label: Verve |
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Click on tracks
 to hear sound samples.
1. Walk
on the Wild Side (5:55)
2. Ol' Man River (3:57)
3. In a Mellow Tone (4:23)
4. Step Right Up (4:11)
5. Beggar for the Blues (7:26)
6. Bashin' (6:13)
7. I'm an Old Cow Hand (from the Rio Grande) (6:07)
8. Bashin' (45 rpm version) (2:38)
9. Ol' Man River (45 rpm version) (2:50) |
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Producer's
Note
I had rented the "sleighbells on a stick" percussion piece the day before
the "Wild Side" recording date. I placed them on my mantelpiece for good
luck. These bells start the 12/8 section that Oliver had arranged. I "knew"
that Part II "Walk on the WIld Side" would be a hit!
–
Creed Taylor
POW
Combine the huge and sardonic big band sound of the Oliver Nelson Orchestra
with the greasy organ of Jimmy Smith, and you get a marvel.
– a music fan
The Title Is Right... Bashin'
This CD is really some smokin' playing by Jimmy. It's highly recommended.
The big band backup of Oliver Nelson, with whom Jimmy collaborated on a
good number of recordings, really adds to the Bashin'. It's real powerful
stuff all the way through.
– David K. Fielding
"Jimmy Smith Comes to Austin"
The words funky and crunchy do not begin to describe the music and spirit
of the legendary organist Jimmy Smith.
Born on December 8, 1928 in Norristown (near Philadelphia), Pennslyvania,
James Oscar Smith was self-taught on piano and string bass. Although he
never learned to read music, by the age of seven, he was playing “The William
Tell Overture” and, two years later, won the nationally broadcast Major
Bowes Amateur Hour playing boogie-woogie. “I went there to blow everybody
away,” he says of the show, “I've had this attitude since I found out I
could play. My mother didn't have to tell me to get up there. I'd walk up
to the piano and just start playing.”
In 1942, Smith teamed up with his father in a song-and-dance routine in
and around Philadelphia. After a stint in the Navy during World War II,
he returned home, plastering houses with his father during the week and
playing piano with local groups on weekends. After a number of years of
paying his dues on out-of-tune and broken pianos in nightclubs, Smith bought
his first electric organ in 1953 after seeing Wild Bill Davis, one of the
swing-era pianists who had made the transition to electric instruments.
“He told me it would take me four years just to learn the pedals alone,”
Smith remembers. “It was a challenge.”
Four months later – after secretly practicing in a warehouse – Smith was
ready to return to Wild Bill. “I was like a maniac. I was like Glenn Ford
in The Fastest Gun Alive. I went down to hunt for Wild Bill Davis.”
“I'm playing like Bud [Powell] in my left hand and throwing some Bird licks
on him. Then I showed him how to play brass the real way-full brass, not
just one hand.” Three days after the reunion, Smith landed a gig at the
nearby Cotton Club in Atlantic City…
Among the first musicians to expand the language of modern jazz into the
realm of electric instruments, Smith soon attracted a large following and
became an inspiration and father-figure to a new generation of instrumentalists,
especially organists. In 1962, he recorded Bashin' with a big band conducted
and arranged by Oliver Nelson. This ground-breaking album features Smith's
no-nonsense, intensely swinging organ work on a burning arrangement of Elmer
Bernstein's movie theme, “Walk on the Wild Side.” This arrangement became
a Top 40 hit in 1962 and was soon followed by “Hoochie Coochie Man” which
features Smith's distinctive funky organ and his irreverent, gruff vocals.
His popularity was so great in the 1960s that downbeat magazine introduced
the organ category to its readers' poll in 1964. Evidence of Smith's dominance
on the instrument and the music immediately made him a legend. He has won
the Down Beat poll every year by a two-to-one margin.
– Kavid Day
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Jimmy Smith
Oliver Nelson
Oliver Nelson's Orchestra
Jimmy and Ron Carter with Creed
Jimmy with Creed
Jimmy with Creed
Photos by Chuck Stewart |
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