Jimmy Smith Damn! (Verve)

Damn!

Jimmy Smith, organ; Mark Whitfield, guitar; Roy Hargrove, Nicholas Payton,
trumpet; Ron Blake, Mark Turner, Tim Warfield, tenor sax; Abraham Burton,
alto sax; Christian McBride, bass; Art Taylor, Bernard Purdie, drums.

This session marks Jimmy Smith's return to the Verve label, after an absence of twenty-three years. The intent here was to pair him in the studios for the first time with a group of compatible young musicians like Roy Hargrove and Christian McBride who, as it turned out, were not even born when he had his greatest recorded successes on Verve in the early and mid 1960's.

Surprisingly, the jazz classics performed here are all compositions never previously recorded by Jimmy, "Sister Sadie" by Horace Silver, "This Here" by Bobby Timmons, "The One Before This" by Gene Ammons, "Watermelon Man" by Herbie Hancock, "A La Mode" by Curtis Fuller, as well as tunes by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. This project differs from the many jam sessions Jimmy did for the Blue Note label in the 1950's in that the songs are more arranged. There is still, however, plenty of room for Jimmy and the various soloists to stretch out.

Although they had played together once before in Paris (on a gig where Jimmy played piano), this was the first time Jimmy and Art Taylor had ever recorded together. Sadly this was to be Art's final recording session. His swing and his fire were an inspiration to everyone on the date.

--RICHARD SEIDEL, from the liner notes.

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