This feature is derived from KNKX's Tree of Jazz, taking you through the eras, from the roots to the new budding leaves, with a weekly deep dive into iconic artists, albums, and instruments.
70 years ago, when organist Jimmy Smith ventured to Hackensack, New Jersey, it was a damp and brisk February; Smith crossed over two rivers, the Hudson and the Hackensack, to arrive at the modest family home and recording studio of Rudy Van Gelder.
It was Smith's first session for Blue Note Records in 1956. Soon after, Smith would make the trip back to the studio enough times that he nicknamed the organ there “the old girl."
Smith would go on to redefine what the organ could sound like in a jazz setting, and he would earn the nickname the "Incredible” Jimmy Smith. But his journey with music began decades before he sat down at the organ.
Discovering the Organ
In the early '50s, Smith heard the organ for the first time and knew he had to play it. He later recalled sneaking up on stage to touch the keys after being enamored with its sound and “soft” touch.
Inspired and determined, Smith got his own Hammond B-3 organ, which he kept in the warehouse where he worked with his father. Between work and gigging as a pianist with jazz and R&B ensembles in Philadelphia, Smith practiced the organ in his off time. He developed foot-pedal bass lines and played rapid-fire melodies like bebop horn lines.
On the organ, Smith’s years in music culminated. Before he ever touched those soft keys, he formally studied music, was a pre-teen sensation playing stride piano, and played in the U.S. Navy band during World War II.
By 1955, he emerged with a striking sound on the B-3. His chords roared on the bandstand like flames in a house fire, he played with lightning-fast bebop tempos, and his bass grooves were soaked in the soul from the Philadelphia scene, relieving the need for a bass player in his ensembles. All of this together led to an awe-inspiring sound.
As word spread among musicians in Philadelphia about the enthralling sound coming from Smith's organ, he landed a gig at Small’s Paradise in New York City. Blue Note Records co-founder Alfred Lion was in the audience, and he was blown away. He signed him almost immediately, in late 1955.
A Lasting Impression
Not long after, in Feb. 1956, he recorded his debut albums, A New Sound… A New Star… Vol. 1 & 2, with his first trio, including guitarist Thornel Schwartz and drummer Bay Perry. The intense, encompassing sound that he’d shaped in that Philadelphia warehouse was now on record, and it redefined what jazz organ could be.
On A New Sound... A New Star... (Vol. 1 & 2), Smith made the organ roar on standards like “The Way You Look Tonight, and shine on the tender ballad “Midnight Sun.” Smith’s playful side came out on “The High and Mighty.”
After those sessions, Smith’s profile rose exponentially. Smith went on to record prolifically for Blue Note, and later for Verve and other labels. His sound was so popular that he never recorded as a sideman, always as a leader or co-leader.
Seventy years from those first sessions, Smith’s music has remained through the decades and is carried on through artists like Richard “Groove” Holmes, Jimmy McGriff, Joey Defrancesco, Medeski Martin & Wood, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio and countless others that come together in the trio format that Smith made quintessential: organ, guitar, and drums.
This story comes from the February 15, 2025, episode of the Tree of Jazz. Listen to the past two weeks of Tree of Jazz On-Demand, and hear deep dives like this each week on air and online every Sunday from 3-6 p.m. PT.
