In November 1965, organist Jimmy Smith traveled to Frankfurt, Germany, to begin a multi-city concert tour with guitarist Quentin Warren and drummer Billy Hart. They were joined on the bill by the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet (Gillespie, James Moody, Kenny Barron, Chris White and Rudy Collins). Other stops on the tour included Berlin, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Stuttgart, Munich, Amsterdam, Brussels, Zurich, Ghent, Paris and London before the trio returning to New York and Philadelphia. Along for the ride was a West German TV camera crew, which wound up catching quite a bit of Smith's edgy personality. Watch for cameos by attorney Clarence Avant as well as fleeting appearances by engineer Rudy Van Gelder and producer Creed Taylor at the December 16, 1965 Got My Mojo Working recording session for Verve. Particularly fascinating are the scenes showing Smith being turned on to the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction for pragmatic inclusion on the Mojo album. There's also a brief scene in which Smith's wife explains her three choices when dealing with his temper. All in all, a fascinating look at the father of the modern organ at the dawn of the pop-rock era and the dread jazz musicians were feeling as the new music solidified its commercial hold over markets. A special thanks to Jim Eigo for sending this one along...
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Great, Marc, that you're offering us the opportunity to travel back in time, with posting this documentary.
Great times, despite the conservative government in Germany, back then. Just listen to the radio in Jimmy's car, and watch him grooving along with it. "Jimmy Smith is the name. Organist." Hilarious!
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Marc Myers writes frequently on music and the arts for the Wall Street Journal. He is author of "Why Jazz Happened" (University of California Press). In 2012, JazzWax was named the Jazz Journalists Association's "Blog of the Year."
Great, Marc, that you're offering us the opportunity to travel back in time, with posting this documentary.
Great times, despite the conservative government in Germany, back then. Just listen to the radio in Jimmy's car, and watch him grooving along with it. "Jimmy Smith is the name. Organist." Hilarious!
Posted by: Brew | March 23, 2012 at 08:39 AM