Jimmy Smith Article from 1964

[Jim Alfredson]

Found this on the web:

Here is an article quoted from *Hammond Times* Volume 26 Number 2

(July-August 1964) Written by Jimmy Smith entitled "Incredible!"

My first Hammond Organ was bought ten years ago. I was playing piano in

small bands around Philadelphia and was so impressed with the incredible

number and variety of sounds you can get with the Hammond that I couldn't

rest until I had my own.

I never did take lessons, just taught myself. First, I learned about the

drawbars and what each one stood for. As time passed, I experimented trying

out all the different sounds. Next came the presets. I tried them out too

but I don't use them very much except when playing ballads or something

sweet and soft.

When it came to the  foot pedals, I made a chart of them and put it on the

wall in front of me wo I wouldn't have to look down. My  first method was

just using the toe. In the earlier days I was a tap dancer so the transition

to heel and toe playing was made without too much trouble. One thing I

learned was that you have to have a relaxed ankle. I would write out

different bass lines to try for different tempi in order to relax the ankle.

One useful learning technique was to put my favorite records on and then

play the bass line along with them to see if I could play the pedals without

looking down and only occasionally using my chart on the wall. This worked

out fine.

When you are properly co-ordinated, you get an even flow in the bass. Most

often, organists are uneven in their playing of the pedals, heavy here and

light there.

Soon I was putting hands and feet together and achieving co-ordination.

My first job with the organ was at a Philadelphia supper club, playing a duo

with drums. It was here I began further experimentation with different

drawbar settings and using different effects and dynamics. It was before

these audiences that the Jimmy Smith sound evolved.

People always ask me about this  sound. This probably is best explained in

my approach to the organ. While others think of the organ as a full

orchestra, I think of it as a horn. I've always been an admirer of Charlie

Parker. . .and I try to sound like him. I wanted that single-line sound like

a trumpet, a tenor or an alto saxophone.

Shortly afterward, I recorded for Blue Note and my records began to get

popular. After seven years with Blue Note (and twenty-one LP's later) I

moved to MGM records. My first big record for them was "Walk on the Wild

Side," from the movie of the same name. On this record I used a sole setting

of 88 8000 001 on the upper manual on B preset, vibrato off, and percussion

on.

After much harassment from fellow organists, fans, and musicians it is my

intention to publish an organ book. This book will show musically exactly

what I find very difficult to explain editorially.

Ever since I was a child, I wanted to play the better type of music, even

classics. I haven't done anything like that, but I'm going to. I'm going to

scare a lot of people with the incredible number of tones on the Hammond

Organ before I die.

Copyright 1964, Hammond Organ Company, Chicago, Illinois

[Jim Alfredson]

Another one, with Mel Rhyne too!

He's A-1 on the B-3

October 8, 2003

BY DAVE HOEKSTRA Staff Reporter

Jimmy Smith will be the first to tell you how he floats like a butterfly and stings like a Hammond B-3.

One of the feisty pioneers of the Hammond B-3 organ, Smith headlines Pete Miller's eighth annual Jump & Verve Jazz Festival with his quintet at 7 and 9 tonight at the new Music Institute of Chicago, 1490 Chicago Ave. in Evanston.

Smith, 75, mentored former Wes Montgomery sideman Melvin Rhyne as Rhyne switched from piano to B-3. The Melvin Rhyne Quartet featuring guitarist Peter Bernstein will appear at 8:30 p.m. Friday at Pete Miller's, 1557 Sherman in Evanston, and Saturday at Pete Miller's, 412 N. Milwaukee in Wheeling. Both Rhyne shows are free.

Rhyne played B-3 with hard bop guitarist Montgomery on three albums between 1959 and 1964, when he was a member of the Wes Montgomery Trio. "Melvin Rhyne used to bug me to death about teaching him," Smith said between bites of carrot cake from his home in Sacramento, Calif. "I taught him when he was with Wes Montgomery."

Rhyne lives in Indianapolis, where he first hooked up with Indianapolis native Montgomery. The Wes Montgomery Trio played at the Missile Room, an after-hours club on the near west side of Indianapolis.

"I remember one time I drove from Detroit to Philadelphia," Rhyne recalled Monday. "We had worked the previous night, so I was beat. Jimmy Smith happened to be in the [Philadelphia] club, and he scooted me off the organ bench and took over. I was glad because I was tired. He did talk to me about how to make repairs, how to get some of the dust out of the organ. But everybody knows Jimmy Smith," Rhyne said with a laugh.

"He is responsible for me wanting to play the organ more," Rhyne added. "I heard him on a jukebox at the Top Hat in Louisville, Ky. I heard his record and said, 'Somebody finally did it.' It's like he was a researcher. After Jimmy Smith, everybody could sit down and do what they wanted to do."

Smith uses his landmark 1957-58 Blue Note albums "Houseparty" and "The Sermon!" as a cornerstone for his teachings. His all-star Blue Note group included Art Blakey on drums, Lee Morgan on trumpet and Kenny Burrell on guitar. Smith's blues-tinged composition "The Sermon" (dedicated to Blue Note pianist Horace Silver) clocked in at 20:11. "That's the song that really made my leg tired," Smith said with a laugh. "That's a long time to play. I kept going through fortitude and attitude."

Smith achieves tonal quality by using his left hand not just to play notes, but to change settings (and the corresponding harmonics) on the B-3's drawbars. The challenge for B-3 players is that they can be playing notes in the correct key, but pulling the wrong settings on the drawbars.

Smith also has the gift of telegraphing lean, contemporary bass lines on pedals while employing lithe handwork over the keyboards. This is how Smith introduced the weighty B-3 into the progressive bebop movement.

"Jimmy Smith plays his left hand on the lower keyboards," Rhyne explained. "He pats the pedal with his left foot. He gets a tremendous sound. The guys who came along before us actually played the pedals and they got a real staccato sound, which is not nearly as smooth. Jimmy Smith perfected that new sound."

Smith is largely self-taught, while also picking up pointers from New York organist Wild Bill Davis.

"He told me it would take me 15 years to learn to play the pedals alone," Smith said. "The pedals alone! Not the hands. I was playing in two months. I knew what I was doing. I figured out how to play them [pedals and hands] together."

Smith also figured out it didn't behoove him to take a B-3 on the road. The B-3 weighs more than 400 pounds.

I mentioned how I once spoke to former Roomful of Blues B-3 organist Ron Levy after a gig at the Green Parrot in Key West, Fla. Levy was carting his beloved B-3 in a trailer through a Southern tour.

"That's stupid," Smith said. "I've done it. That thing is heavy. In most of the big-city clubs, I'd give two winos a jug of wine to help me move it. I've been there."

And Smith has been everywhere. After his Evanston gigs, he heads to shows in Istanbul, Turkey, and Warsaw, Poland. "I'm 75," he says. "But I keep looking ahead."

[Joe G]

Those are GREAT! I couldn't believe the first article; not that I didn't think Jimmy could be so articulate (well maybe a little of that ) but that he would be so forthcoming. Crazy baby!

[Matthew]

That's quite the image, Jimmy Smith shedding with a drawing of the foot pedals on the wall in front of him. I hope his health has improved recently. Thanks for the articles, B3-er!

Edited October 11, 2003 by Matthew