Prayer Meetin' [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster]

Performer: Jimmy Smith (Organ)
Artist: Stanley Turrentine
Engineer: Rudy VanGelder
Producer: Alfred Lion; Michael Cuscuna (Reissue)
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Jimmy Smith (organ); Stanley Turrentine (tenor saxophone); Quentin Warren (guitar); Sam Jones (bass); Donald Bailey (drums). Recorded at the Van Gelder studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on June 13, 1960 and February 8, 1963. This is part of Blue Note's RVG series. Personnel: Jimmy Smith (organ); Quentin Warren (guitar); Stanley Turrentine (tenor saxophone); Donald Bailey (drums). Audio Remasterer: Rudy Van Gelder. Liner Note Authors: Joe Goldberg; Bob Blumenthal. Recording information: 06/13/1960-02/08/1963. Photographer: Francis Wolff. PRAYER MEETIN' is vintage Jimmy Smith. With unflappable beatkeeper Donald Bailey, the liquid guitar lines of Quentin Warren, the underrated sax stylings of Stanley Turrentine and the unusual inclusion of a bassist in the person of Sam Jones (Smith usually plays his own bass lines with the foot pedals), the sound on this album is thick, textured and interactive. However, there's no dilution of the intimacy and deep soul associated with Smith. The jazz/blues amalgam laid out in the title track, "Red Top" and "Picknickin'" is impossible to resist--fat grooves given flight by the keyboardist's intense, syncopated flurries. The ballad "I Almost Lost My Mind," featuring a gorgeous solo by Turrentine, and the calypso boogie of "Stone Cold Dead In The Marketplace" add variety to the set. The one seeming throwaway, a swing version of "When The Saints Go Marching In," is more than compensated for by two additional tracks not included on the original LP, "Lonesome Road" and "Smith Walk." All in all, this disc is a fine example not only of Smith's prodigious abilities, but of how well he works with an ensemble to create beautiful, compelling music. Playing piano-style single-note lines on his Hammond B-3 organ, Jimmy Smith revolutionized the use of the instrument in a jazz combo setting in the mid-'50s and early '60s, and arguably his best albums for Blue Note during this period were the ones he did with tenor sax player Stanley Turrentine. Recorded on February 8, 1963, at Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey, and featuring Quentin Warren on guitar and Donald Bailey on drums in addition to Smith and Turrentine, Prayer Meetin' is a delight from start to finish. Forming a perfect closure to Smith's trio of albums with Turrentine (Midnight Special and Back at the Chicken Shack were both released in 1960), Prayer Meetin' was the last of four albums Smith recorded in a week to finish off his Blue Note contract before leaving for Verve. The blues roots are obvious here, and the Smith-penned title track might even be called jazz-gospel, but the single most striking cut is a version of Ivory Joe Hunter's "I Almost Lost My Mind," with both Smith and Turrentine building wonderful solos, suggesting new pathways for organ and sax as complementary instruments. This release includes two additional tracks ("Lonesome Road" and "Smith Walk") recorded by the same personnel, augmented by bassist Sam Jones, in 1960. ~ Steve Leggett

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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