Jazz great Jimmy Smith dies at 79

[aricher]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/music/cst-ftr-smith10.html

Sadly most people probably know Jimmy Smith best from the Beastie Boys liberally sampling his track "Root Down" for their song "Root Down." Smith was THE master of the Hammond B-3 organ. Over the years he played alongside other Jazz legends such as Wes Montgomery, Art Blakey, Kenny Burrell and many more. The man was a Jazz giant and will be truly missed.

 

[Flowbee]

And I had plans to see him play at Yoshi's in Oakland next week. I was fortunate to have seen him play live several times over the years. Always a great show.

Anyone who's not familiar with Jimmy Smith's music should definitely give him a listen... the iTMS has 34 of his albums!

 

[wdlove]

My prayers go out to his family and friends. May Jimmy Smith rest in peace. Sounds like a great career. A song of 20 minutes is quite an accomplishment, no wonder it made him tired.

 

[aricher]

I was just poking around the web and saw that in is nearly 40 year solo recording history for Blue Note and Verve records Jimmy Smith released over 95 albums - WOW! Flowbee - sorry to hear you'll miss seeing JS play live again. You are right - always a great show. After one performance here in Chicago several years ago a friend of mine and I had a chance to meet and talk with JS - we was very gracious, witty and funny. Man that cat had soul.

 

[Floyd WHO]

Just when I found him he's gone

I saw a PBS special about "Blue Note Records" and of course Jimmy Smith was profiled. So I got on Itunes and downloaded the coolest Hammond B3 player I've ever heard. When you grow up in the 60's listening to Rock & Roll it takes a life time to find out about the tremendous Jazz you missed.

 

[aricher]

Floyd WHO - it doesn't matter when you find an artist - just that you finally did. If you're into guitar at all be sure to check out two albums that JS did with Wes Montgomery - "The Dynamic Duo" and "The Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes" from 1966/67. Amazing records.

 

[vollspacken]

oh noooooooooooo

first Volker Kriegel and now Jimmy Smith...

Rest in peace, brother

vSpacken