House Party [Remaster]

Performer: Jimmy Smith (Organ)
Artist: Kenny Burrell; Lee Morgan; Art Blakey; Lou Donaldson; George Coleman; Tina Brooks; Curtis Fuller
Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Jimmy Smith (organ); Lou Donaldson, George Coleman (alto saxophone); Tina Brooks (tenor saxophone); Lee Morgan (trumpet); Curtis Fuller (trombone); Kenny Burrell, Eddie McFadden (guitar); Art Blakey, Donald Bailey (drums). Producer: Alfred Lion. Reissue producer: Michael Cuscuna. Recorded at Manhattan Towers, New York, New York on August 25, 1957 and February 25, 1958. Originally released on Blue Note (4002). Includes liner notes by Robert Levin and Bob Blumenthal. Digitally remastered by Rudy Van Gelder. This is part of the Blue Note Rudy Van Gelder Editions series. In the late 1950s, Jimmy Smith recorded a seemingly endless number of sessions for Blue Note, the label that brought him to worldwide attention. Many of the subsequently released albums were culled from tracks recorded at various sessions with a wide range of sidemen. Arguably, one of the most successful of these conglomerations is the exceptional HOUSE PARTY. Smith was at the height of his popularity, defining a style that would be monstrously influential to all who would come after him. Here he leads the rather large ensemble through a set of mostly standards; the two Charlie Parker-composed favorites, "Au Privave" and "Confirmation" are a couple of the most charged-up statements of these enduring works. Throughout, Smith churns and burns with the phenomenal energy and dexterity that made him a household word in the jazz world. For hard bop fans, this is a Jimmy Smith collection that demands attention.

Though he was a late bloomer (he didn't start playing organ until age 28), Jimmy Smith is the single most influential figure in the history of jazz organ. He was the pioneering force in making the organ a lead instrument. And while he had bebop chops aplenty, his blues/R&B influences and preference for space over clutter also made him an icon of the subsequent acid jazz movement. Though his heyday was in the 1960s, the larger-than-life organist blazed ahead for decades afterward, until his death in February 2005.

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