Search - Jimmy Smith :: Sum Serious Blues

Jimmy Smith may be the best known organist in jazz, but his recording, Sum Serious Blues, is essentially an upscale blues album in the style of B.B. King or Ray Charles. Instead of his usual trio, Smith is backed by a three-man rhythm section and a seven-man horn-and-harmonica section under the direction of producer-arranger Johnny Pate, who has worked in the past with King and Curtis Mayfield. It's a big, full sound, and works well on the five instrumentals (three by Smith and two by Pate). Smith's expressive vibrato on the Hammond B-3 organ often sounds like a blues singer's wail against the horns' harmonic backdrop. Smith doesn't hog the show either. He fits comfortably inside the horn charts when his well known bandmates like guitarist Phil Upchurch, trombonist George Bohanon, trumpeter Oscar Brashear, or saxophonist Buddy Collette take a solo. --Geoffrey Himes