Cool Blues [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster]

Performer: Jimmy Smith (Organ)
Artist: Lou Donaldson; Art Blakey; Tina Brooks
Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel includes: Jimmy Smith (organ); Lou Donaldson (alto saxophone); Tina Brooks (tenor saxophone); Eddie McFadden (guitar); Art Blakey, Donald Bailey (drums). Producer: Alfred Lion. Reissue producer: Michael Cuscuna. Recorded live at Small's Paradise, New York, New York on April 7, 1958. Includes liner notes by Michael Cuscuna and Bob Blumenthal. All tracks have been digitally remastered. This is part of Blue Note Records "Rudy Van Gelder Editions" series. Personnel: Jimmy Smith (organ); Eddie McFadden (guitar); Lou Donaldson (alto saxophone); Tina Brooks (tenor saxophone); Donald Bailey , Art Blakey (drums). Audio Remasterer: Rudy Van Gelder. Recording information: Small's Paradise, New York, NY (04/07/1958). Photographer: Francis Wolff. This CD should greatly interest all Jimmy Smith collectors, including those who already have the original LP. In addition to four excellent selections (quintets with altoist Lou Donaldson, Tina Brooks on tenor, guitarist Eddie McFadden, either Art Blakey or Donald Bailey on drums and the organist/leader), there are three previously unissued numbers from the same gig, featuring the quartet of Donaldson, Smith, McFadden and Bailey. The repertoire is filled with blues and bop standards and the soloing is at a consistently high and hard-swinging level. Jimmy Smith fans will be pleased. ~ Scott Yanow This CD should greatly interest all Jimmy Smith collectors, including those who already have the original LP. In addition to four excellent selections (quintets with altoist Lou Donaldson, Tina Brooks on tenor, guitarist Eddie McFadden, either Art Blakey or Donald Bailey on drums, and the organist/leader), there are three previously unissued numbers from the same gig, featuring the quartet of Donaldson, Smith, McFadden, and Bailey. The repertoire is filled with blues and bop standards, and the soloing is at a consistently high and hard-swinging level. Jimmy Smith fans will be pleased. [The 2002 re-release by Blue Note includes several songs not included on the original: "Announcements by Babs Gonzales," "What's New," "Small's Minor," and "Once in a While."] ~ Scott Yanow

Q (May 2002, p.135) - 4 out of 5 stars - "...Smiths' soaring, convulsive sound is still the benchmark against which jazz organ playing is judged..." Down Beat (May 2002, p.60) - 4.5 out of 5 stars - "...[Smith] plays here like a maniac, like a man who has miraculously invented botha n instrument and himself, shrieking and skittering and laying down monstrous grooves..."

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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