Jimmy Smith "Sit On It" quandary

ccex · March 16, 2009

I've been a Jimmy Smith fan since an afternoon 35 years ago when I skipped classes in prep school, rode the bus to the closest decaying industrial town and found a new "Prayer Meetin'" LP with Stanley Turrentine in the $1.99 cutout bin. I accumulated most of his Blue Notes and Verves back in college (late '70s/early '80s). I remember reading bad reviews then of his latest album, "Sit On It", which was released when many of my heroes (Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Herbie Hancock, and even Pharoah Sanders and Jackie McLean) made sell-out albums. Still, the album cover of Jimmy Smith's "Sit On It" was as cheesy as any. Tonight my wife just said that the lady sitting on top of the organ has great legs. We both heard him perform in our neighborhood 13 years ago.

Last month I had time to waste in my favorite local used record shop and bought a shrinkwrapped cutout LP of 1977's Mercury LP "Sit On It" for $7.98. Tonight I rediscovered it in the stack of LPs I hope to covert to CD, but wonder if I'll be disappointed. This has been my epitiome of crass tacky jazz for over 30 years. I once proudly took an acetylene torch to my promotional copy of "Double Shot" by Chet Baker and the Mariachi Brass, and don't regret it.

I decided two years ago not to collect the vinyl LPa I love, since I collect enough stuff already (obsolete computers, CPU chips and hard drives, 100-year-old dimes, etc.) so that I'd just keep the music on a terabyte hard drive, unless a musician had autographed the album cover. That decision helped me pay the mortgage and other bills for a few months after I was laid off in 2007, thanks to a bunch of Sun Ra Saturns and other LPs I bought in college.

My question now is whether to open Jimmy Smith's "Sit On It" and store it on my hard drive. I suspect it's one of his worst sessions ever. (Although now I perversely love "Monster" from 1966 with schlocky Oliver Nelson arrangements of "Theme from the Munsters" and "Goldfinger" - I'm listening to it right now.) Is "Sit On It" a truly forgettable part of Jimmy Smith's discography from the worst part of his career and the disco era, or might Japanese collectors pay big bux for it when the economy revives in a few years? (My wife is convinced that life on planet earth will end in 2011, which is when I think earthlings will return to spending impulsively.)

I don't need to hear predictions on when life on earth will end, or when kitsch will again become profitable as collectibles (I spend lots oftime on eBay). This long post simply asks two questions: 1) Should an inveterate jazz and Jimmy Smith fan listen to an LP which might be one of his worst?, 2) Will vinyl collectors pay a premium for this in a few years?

Edited March 16, 2009 by ccex