Jazz | Fusion Vinyl 344 Items

Limited Clear Vinyl edition, 300 copies! Dorothy Ashby album from 1961 that also features female vibes player Terry Pollard. Comes with a version of The Skatalites 'Guns of Navarone' which is a pretty surreal listening experience. From the original liner notes: "Dorothy Ashby may not be the first jazz harpist (Caspar Reardon) or the first female jazz harpist (Adele Girard), but her good feeling for time and ability to construct melodic, guitar-like lines, mark her as the most accomplished modern jazz harpist (...) Accompanying her was another Detroit girl, Terry Pollard. Terry's main instrument is the piano and she is one of the best in the country, bar none. She is also a pretty fair country vibraharpist and in this set, Miss Pollard plays vibes exclusively. With them is still another Detroiter, Herman Wright, who like Miss Pollard has worked with Terry Gibbs and Yusef Lateef, and who also served as Miss Ashby's regular bassist. (...) Completing the quartet is Jimmy Cobb, drummer for the Miles Davis group. During the proceedings, Cobb travels between brushes and sticks without upsetting the equilibrium of this essentially quiet set. There is wide range of material presented here, from blues like Benny Goodman's title number, 'Soft Winds', and Miss Ashby's 'With Strings Attached', to movie themes such as 'Laura', 'Wild Is the Wind', and 'The Guns Of Navarone'. Then there are works by such superior writers of standards as Kurt Weill ('My Ship'); Gershwin ('The Man I Love' and 'Love Is Here To Stay')"

Originally released in 1963, this is a majestic piece of work. Considered as one of Ellington's best studio recordings of the Sixties this is also an essential mosaic piece within Duke's open wide afro-centric vision. Performed by a top version of his famous big band, Afro Bossa sounds as a sophisticated, sensual blend of orchestral Jazz arrangements and black bossa flavoured grooves. Among the players, many of Duke's historical sidemen such as trumpeter Ray Nance, sax giants Paul Gonsalves and Johnny Hodges, drummer extraordinaire Sam Woodyard and last but not least, Ellington's alter ego Billy Strayhorn, what else?

It's tempting for "Blues In Orbit" to be overlooked when Duke Ellington's best albums are discussed, but truly it's an undisputed gem. There are 14 tracks, none of them is longer than 4:50 and it is all good stuff. There are some familiar favorites such as "In A Mellotone" and "C Jam Blues" as well as less often heard gems like "Blues In Blueprint and "Sweet And Pungent". It is also in stereo, and the arrangements are superb.
The featured performers include Ellington stalwarts Johnnie Hodges, Ray Nance, Harry Carney and Jimmy Hamilton, as well as the less familiar Booty Wood and Matthew Gee. Johnnie, in particular is well showcased here, taking the lead not only in slow pieces like "Brown Penny" and "Sentimental Lady", but also in the rousing "Smada".
The full Analogue Productions reissue treatment is at work on this smashing LP — famed mastering engineer Bernie Grundman handled the remastering from the original analog tapes. The lacquers were plated and pressed at Quality Record Pressings, maker of the world's finest-sounding LPs. Lastly we've stashed each super-silent 200-gram disc in a premium Stoughton Printing gatefold jacket.
All of the takes were recorded during after midnight sessions recorded over two nights starting on December 2, 1959 in New York at Columbia Record's studio on East 30th Street. Each night Duke's late dinner arrived at 2 a.m. — a sizzling steak, a pot of coffee with lemons in it, portions of American cheese, and grapefruits. After dinner, and a breather for the band, the sessions finished around dawn in a swinging fashion.
If you're just getting into jazz, this album is highly recommended as a great way to initiate your collection. The sound is incredible, with packaging to match. Another audiophile home run.

Re-mastering by: Ray Staff at Air Mastering, Lyndhurst Hall, London

This is one of Eddie Harris' great records. The playing is inspired! What a band! Cedar Walton (piano) and Billy Higgins (drums), Lee Morgan's favourite rhythm section. The underrated but popular tenor saxophonist introduces his "Freedom Jazz Dance," which would become a jazz standard after featuring on Miles Davis' album Miles Smiles. Plays one of the earlier versions of "The Shadow of Your Smile," romps on "Love for Sale" and "'S Wonderful," and also performs "Born to Be Blue" and his own "Cryin' Blues." Harris is heard in prime form in a quartet/quintet with pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Ron Carter, drummer Billy Higgins, and part-time trumpeter Ray Codrington. A gem. - Scott Yanow/AMG

Recorded 1965
Engineer – Tom Dowd

It is 1960, Rock’n’Roll has just lost a couple of its protagonists during this and the previous year, the time of the great balladeers has just begun but soon will run out due to the new and exciting beat invasion. In US mainstream the tiki culture has reached a certain peak and is about to collapse but still goes strong and with it comes the so called “exotica” music, a crossover between smooth jazz and swing, Latin grooves, haunting melodies that are rooted in the folkloristic sounds from different parts of this world plus weird sound effects that often create a spooky jungle or dreamy island beach atmosphere. It can even bend your mind that far you would see palm trees growing out of your speakers and witness monkeys and parrots having fun in your room. Eden Ahbez, born in 1908, passed in 1995, a man living an even more consistent dropout and hippie lifestyle way before the movement was born in the mid 60s, a beat poet and composer who wrote the hit tune “Nature boy” that gave Nat King Cole his first big success in 1947, approaches the field of exotica music from a different point of view creating an epic concept album about an utopian society living in peace and harmony on an island far away from the modern western world as we know it. And indeed we find many trademarks of the prototypical exotica music beginning with this relaxed groove combining easy listening swing and Latin patterns, peaceful, dreamy and even transcendental vocal melodies, tinges of folk music from around the world including powerful dances and a whole color palette of mind expanding sounds giving the whole music an even greater depth and width.

First Lady of Song Ella Fitzgerald overcame the challenges of a tumultuous youth through music, her performances with the Chick Webb Orchestra at the Savoy Ballroom and distinctive scat singing leading to early recordings and the 1938 breakthrough, ‘A Tisket A Tasket.’ After recording bebop LPs for Decca, manager Norman Granz launched the Verve label to allow her to broaden her musical horizons, exploring the Great American Songbook. Released in 1960, Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas sees her tackle Christmas classics as only Ella can, the lavish orchestration overseen by noted conductor Frank de Vol.

Elis Regina one of the greatest Brazilian interpreters of all time! Originally released in 1963 when she was not even 20 years old, this was her fourth album and second for Columbia records. Still a few steps before she became a star, here Elis Regina's fresh and extremely ductile voice shines on top of sophisticated Jazz arrangements by Astor Silva and a mixed repertoire based on charming romantic songs and vibrant sambas, all composed by Brazilian authors, among them a couple of highlights such as Baden Powell's "Se Você. Quiser" and "O Ben do Amor" the title track composed by guitarist Rildo Hora. This is an an early and fine statement in Regina's fast way to the peak of Brazilian music history.

One night during a one-time, two-week engagement at the Five Spot produced enough music of lasting merit for three albums. When Rudy Van Gelder took his portable equipment down to the fabled Cooper Square jazz club on July 16, 1961, he captured the interaction of an extraordinary quintet.
Eric Dolphy, Booker Little, Mal Waldron, Richard Davis and Ed Blackwell had formed a cooperative group and, if LIttle had not died in October 1961, there is no doubt that it would have been a potent force in the music of the 1960s and beyond. Dolphy himself died in June 1964, after establishing himself as one of the important contemporary reedmen. Here his alto saxophone and bass clarinet and Little’s trumpet explore three originals: "The Prophet" by Dolphy, "Bee Vamp" by Little, and "Fire Waltz" by Waldron. It’s time caught in a bottle — music for the ages.

Recorded live by Rudy Van Gelder this is one of a pair of Dolphy's albums documenting the 1961 historical residency at the Five Spot, the New York's major temple of the early avantgarde. This is timeless music performed by one of the essential lineups in modern Jazz. A marvelous quintet featuring the great Booker Little on trumpet and the amazing rhythm section of Mal Waldron — piano, Richard Davis — double bass and Ed Blackwell — drums plus, of course, master Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone, bass clarinet and flute. "All forward thinking and challenged listeners need to own these epic club dates" Allmusic

In 1960, the free jazz pioneered by Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Horace Tapscott and a very few others was rejected by many musicians and most listeners. For the visionary saxophonist, clarinetist and flutist Eric Dolphy, it was simply new music fed by the mainstream, a logical extension of the jazz tradition. In "Far Cry" without leaving form behind, he incorporated the spirit of adventure and abandon with which free jazz at its best infused freshness into jazz. Recording with a pianoless quartet that used Ron Carter’s cello as the other melody instrument, Dolphy worked from chord patterns developed within structures that depart from ordinary 32-bar jazz and popular song forms. He used 30-bar, 35-bar and 18-bar structures, but he also observed standard practice with 12-bar blues, “Serene”. Dolphy’s speech-like improvisations and Carter’s bowed or plucked cello solos soar over the impeccable and responsive accompaniments of bassist George Duvivier and drummer Roy Haynes.

Dolphy had left his native California and come east as part of Chico Hamilton's group, settling in New York in 1960 and becoming part of Charles Mingus's group. This first recording as a leader brought comparisons with Ornette Coleman but the two were really parallel figures in the then-emerging avant-garde. Dolphy did not eschew 'changes', as Coleman did, but he used them in new ways. This LP was significant not only for his alto saxophone but introduced his individual approach to the flute and, particularly, the bass clarinet.

As Finders Keepers disobedient little-sister-label reaches her 20th (release) anniversaries
Cacophonic Records are proud to present a record that will not only leave rare record
collectors salivating but will open ambitious ears to a truly pioneering album from the seldom
celebrated and individualistic micro-genre that is French free Jazz. Comprising some of the
earliest uninhibited performances from key musicians behind records by Serge Gainsbourg,
Jef Gilson, Triangle, Don Cherry, Barbara and countless other groundbreaking European jazz
records and freakish films, this LP captures the birth of an exciting movement that would
soon earn its Parisian birthplace as the go-to European spiritual home of improvised and
avant-garde music. Spearheaded by polymath pianist and composer François Tusques this
1965 French LP coined the phrase “free jazz” before the American genre of the same name
had fully taken shape and packed its suitcase; laying the foundations (alongside Jef Gilson’s
Enfin!) for a unique satellite brand of jazz that would later provide visiting afro American
avant-gardeners with a vibrant Parisian platform. Having recorded a very rare single in
celebration of the architect Le Corbusier in late 1964 Tusques was lucky enough to play
live with Don Cherry (a key player on Ornette Coleman’s 1961 Free Jazz LP) thus planting a
pedigreed seed for this vibrant cultivar.
With this record we not only hear the unique differences within the Gallic approach to the art
form (combining masterful sombre cinematic changes with aerated free-form percussion and
erratic reed and brass) but we also get to witness the early lesser savoured secret ingredients
that would carry France’s mainstream pop culture into truly uncharted and unrivalled
territories throughout the following decades. Best known to faithful Finders Keepers fans as
the soundtrack composer to the horrortica films of Jean Rollin, Tusques is joined here by sax
and flute player Francois Jeanneau, who’s electronic jazz album Such A Weird Plane” would
later lead to his own band Triangle gaining recognition as France’s leading French language
prig-jazz-rock act. Featuring three players from the aforementioned Enfin! LP by French jazz
pioneer and producer Jef Gilson, Free Jazz combines the skills of Jeanneau, with clarinet
player Michel Portal (Gainsbourg Percussions/Claude Nougaro) and trumpeter Bernard Vitet
(whose avant-garde appearances on the Futura label are indispensable). In addition to this,
Free Jazz also boasts the inclusion of Tusques’ sidekick and double bass master Bernard
“Beb” Guérin (of Sonny Sharrock Monkey-Pockie-Boo infamy) who had also appeared on
the earlier Don Cherry/Le Corbusier recording providing further kudos to this LPs historical
importance.
It is by no coincidence that this carefully selected ensemble would around this time become
enlisted as the backing group for politically driven singer-songwriter Colette Magny (an action
which would arguably later influence Brigitte Fontaine’s choice to adopt The Art Ensemble Of
Chicago as her backing band after the Actuel records Pan-African Jazz festival and record
series). The fact that Colette Magny would provide the art direction for this very LP is a cute
small-print signifier of this LPs intended manifesto status. This album also captures a rare
glimpse of percussionist Charles Saudrais in free-form mode after his departure from the
Barney WIlen Quartet (Moshi) - an inclusion that would surely galvanise the relationship
between WIlen and Tusques resulting in the follow-up record Nouveau Jazz for actor Marcel
Mouloudji’s privately funded Disques Mouloudji label (on which both rare LPs were originally
pressed).
This glimpse into a seldom documented underground of a domestic, revolutionary,
uncompromised spiritual art-form successfully reveals the other-side of abstracted French
music which alongside musique concrète, protest pop, symphonic rock and Zeuhl-skool
electronic prog created a homegrown, self-contained music industry that went on to influence
a universe of Gallic magnetic inspiration. “This is free jazz, Jim; but not as we know it.”

On his second and last album for Impulse! Records, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard went all out: with a first-class orchestra conducted and arranged by Wayne Shorter, occasionally reinforced by strings, and a varied repertoire that seamlessly combined standards with originals by Hubbard.
VERVE BY REQUEST SERIES: remastered, audiophile-quality 180-gram vinyl from Third Man Pressing/Detroit, Gatefold Sleeve

This 1961 set of standards, favoring ballads, is Gene Ammons in his prime. For the most part, this session is tight and structured, keeping Ammons firmly locked in the groove more so than on some of his more wandering dates. His big-as-a-house tone stands center stage in front of a sympathetic piano-bass-drums trio of Richard Wyands, Doug Watkins and J.C. Heard, respectively.

George Russell was one of the most advanced composers and arrangers in the history of Jazz, A theorist and innovator who worked extensively between the 40's and the early 2000's. Originally released by Decca in 1960, "Jazz in the Space Age" was Russell's third effort under his name. A visionary work including music composed and arranged by Russell for various lineups featuring the likes of pianists Bill Evans and Paul Bley, trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, drummer Charlie Persip and others. This is adventurous yet highly accessible music that still sounds fresh today!

The album "Night Lights" by American jazz saxophonist Gerry Mulligan was released in 1963, at the height of the bossa nova boom of the early 1960s. Laid-back rhythms and lyrical compositions leave room for improvisations and charming arrangements of signature solos by his fellow musicians - in addition to three original compositions, there are relaxed versions of Chopin's "Prelude in E Minor" and the Brazilian anthem "Morning of the Carnival" from Luiz Bonfa's "Black Orpheus".



Verve Acoustic Sounds Series: mastered fully analogue from the original tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, QPR pressing (180 g), firm tip-on gatefold (Stoughton Printing), padded inner sleeve, Gatefold Sleeve.

Organist Gloria Coleman discovered drummer Pola Roberts and formed a female band with her. In 1963, the "Soul Sisters", joined by guitarist Grant Green and Leo Wright on saxophone recorded this satisfying and soulful album, unique in the Impulse catalog. Produced by Bob Thiele and recorded by Rudy Van Gelder.



Verve BY Request Series: remastered, audiophile-quality 180-gram vinyl from Third Man Pressing/Detroit, Single Sleeve.

The debut album by a prolific musician, ‘Grant’s First Stand’ is a significant work that set out the Blue Note musician’s highly personal manifesto.

Though Grant’s First Stand was guitarist Grant Green’s maiden release for Blue Note Records it wasn’t his debut recording session for the famous New York jazz label. The St Louis guitarist had, in fact, gone into Rudy Van Gelder’s legendary studio at Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey – where Blue Note did the majority of their recordings from 1959 onwards – on two previous occasions. For some reason, however, the music recorded on two days across October and November 1960 was shelved. It wasn’t until Saturday, 28 January 1961, that Green got to lay down the six tracks that became his debut album for the label.

Issued with the 75th Anniversary of Blue Note records!

Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley had already led nine dates for Blue Note Records by the time he arrived at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio on February 7, 1960 with pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Art Blakey, but on that day the quartet laid down what would become his masterpiece: Soul Station.

The crystalline six-song set was a showcase for Mobley’s lyrical flow from the breezy opening take on Irving Berlin’s “Remember” through bluesy originals like “Dig Dis” and the title track, and the swinging up-tempo numbers “This I Dig of You” and “Split Feelin’s.” Soul Station endures as a jazz classic for the ages..

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

This release comes with a download code.
180g Vinyl

"Due to his decision to settle in Los Angeles, tenor saxophonist Harold Land has long been underrated. A strong bop stylist who later on would be influenced a great deal by John Coltrane, Land in 1959 had a sound closer to Sonny Rollins. For this excellent straight-ahead quintet set with trumpeter Dupree Bolton and pianist Elmo Hope, Land performs four of Hope's superior but little-known compositions along with two of his own. This is high-quality hard bop, easily recommended to fans of straight-ahead jazz." Scott Yanow -All Music Guide

"[...] Tenor saxophonist Harold Land leads an all-star sextet that includes guitarist Wes Montgomery, trumpeter Joe Gordon, pianist Barry Harris, bassist Sam Jones and drummer Louis Hayes. Together, they perform three of Land's originals, "Don't Explain," and Charlie Parker's "Klactoveedsedstene," and an early version of Montgomery's "West Coast Blues." The music is as well-played and swinging as one would expect from this superior bop group." Scott Yanow -All Music Guide

In 1963, tenor saxophonist Harold Vick made his sole album as a leader for Blue Note, the underrated soul jazz gem „Steppin’ Out“. The record finds its groove from the first downbeat and stays firmly in the pocket throughout this set featuring Blue Mitchell, Grant Green, John Patton, and Ben Dixon.



Blue Note Tone Poet Edition: Stereo, produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket



Harold Vick (tenor saxophone); Big John Patton (organ);

Grant Green (guitar); Ben Dixon (drums); Blue Mitchell (trumpet)

Helen Merrill with Piero Umiliani!

In 1959, flutist Herbie Mann put together a very interesting band that was in its brief existence (before Mann's interests shifted elsewhere) one of the top in Afro-Cuban jazz. Utilizing four trumpets (including Doc Cheatham), up to three percussionists and a flute-vibes-bass-drums quartet, Mann performs four standards (including "Dearly Beloved," "I'll Remember April" and "Autumn Leaves") and two originals in a style that was beyond bop and much more African- and Cuban-oriented.

Personnel: Herbie Mann (flute, bass clarinet), Johnny Rae (vibes), Nabil Knobby Totah (bass), Rudy Collins (drums), Ray Mantilla (conga drums), Ray Barretto (bongos except on #8 and #12). Plus trumpet section: Doc Cheatham, Siggy Schatz, Jerome Kail and Leo Ball. Recorded in New York City, 1959

Best known for his work with Charles Mingus, pianist Horace Parlan began recording for Blue Note in 1960 with an excellent run of hard bop classics including Speakin’ My Piece, a quintet date featuring a frontline of Stanley Turrentine on saxophone and Tommy Turrentine on trumpet with the rhythm team of George Tucker on bass and Al Harewood on drums.



Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition: stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal, padded inner sleeve.

"Silver’s Serenade" was the last album Horace Silver made with his celebrated Quintet with Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor and Roy Brooks. These five Silver tunes epitomize his compositional style: captivating melodies, sophisticated harmonies and intricate rhythms with an unerring sense of swing.



BLUE NOTE TONE POET EDITION: Stereo, produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analogue master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe tip-on jacket.

"Heavy Soul" can be easily considered as one of Ike Quebec's best showcases. Recorded in 1961 by master Rudy Van Gelder and originally released on Blue Note, this fine studio session sounds as a perfect mixture of down-home blues spirit and warm, sensual ballads, with Quebec's big tenor sax voice as the leading force of a hard swinging quartet featuring Freddie Roach - organ, Milt Hinton - bass and Al Harewood - drums.

Ingfried Hoffmann - Hammond organ, Pierre Cavalli - 12-string guitar, Volker Kriegel - guitar, Peter Trunk - bass, Rafi Lüderitz - drums



The grooviest James Bond sounds ever! Ingfried Hoffmann had the reputation of being Europe’s best Hammond B-3 organist, a talent that has occasionally overshadowed his equal skill as a pianist, arranger and composer. As a member of Klaus Doldinger’s famed quartet, Hoffmann won several polls as Germany’s best jazz organist and pianist. “Soul Bond” was first released in Germany in 1966 under the title “From Twen With Love’, when the James Bond craze was at its height, following the worldwide success of ‘Thunderball’. Inspired by the first four Bond films, Hoffmann not only laid down fantastically swinging interpretations of Bond themes, but also shone with compositions of his own dedicated to the famous super spy. This is the first LP reissue of the rare Polydor album.



1-lp, 180g, Pallas pressing, padded inner sleeve.

Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean had the blues on his mind when he went into Van Gelder Studio in 1961 to record his hard bop masterpiece Bluesnik with a blazing quintet featuring Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Kenny Drew on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and Pete La Roca on drums. The six-song set of bluesy originals brims with immediacy and vibrancy.

Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition: stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal, padded inner sleeve.

"James Clay's debut album as a leader (and one of only two that he cut before moving back to Dallas for nearly 30 years) matches him with fellow Texas tenor David 'Fathead' Newman, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Sam Jones and drummer Art Taylor. Cannonball Adderley supervised the session, putting the spotlight on the competitive horns who really battle it out on the Babs Gonzales blues "Wide Open Spaces." Clay, who plays flute on the date's lone standard "What's New," holds his own with Newman and plenty of sparks fly." —Scott Yanow (All Music Guide)

From the time Coleman Hawkins firmly established the tenor saxophone on the jazz map, it has been one of the most potent forces in the music, its best practitioners able to raise the roof with a jumping blues, soothe the savage beast with a tender love ballad, and do just about anything in between. At the time of this recording (1961), Jimmy Forrest, the St. Louis-born reedman, was a veteran of the Fate Marable, Jay McShann, Andy Kirk, and Duke Ellington bands. Later in his career he starred with Count Basie. Here he leads a quartet of teammates from the combo of 'Sweets' Edison, including the young Austrian pianist Joe Zawinul, through a gamut of the aforementioned moods from "Crash Program" to the caressing "That's All", with a few tips of the cap to Ben Webster along the way. With Joe Zawinul, Tommy Potter and Clarence Johnston.

Record Store Day 2020 Release.
Limitation: 1500 copies.

The remarkable 1965 New York Concerts performances offer a rare, revealing glimpse into the discographic dark period. This captivating double LP would be valuable solely for the brilliant music, which finds Jimmy Giuffre leading otherwise undocumented trio & quartet lineups, advancing his experiments in counterpoint and abstraction into more adventurous avant-garde territory. But it also offers insight into one of jazz's most innovative thinkers at a key moment in his development. 180-gram vinyl. LP1 / Side A - 1. Syncopate 2. Introduction 3. Crossroads LP1 / Side B - 1. Drive 2. Quadrangle 3. Angles LP2 / Side A - 1. Syncopate 2. Quadrangle 3. Three Bars In One LP2 / Side B - 1. Cry, Want 2. Angles 3. Drive

The first and best out of just two collaborative albums by organist Jimmy Smith and guitarist Wes Montgomery, Jimmy & Wes: The Dynamic Duo was recorded in 1966 and features arrangements by Oliver Nelson. It is frequently listed among Jimmy Smith's best albums. The duo's follow-up record, Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes, was taped during the same sessions and released in 1968. Al/Music critic Richard S. Ginell gave The Dynamic Duo the maximum * * * * * rating, stating that "Creed Taylor matched two of his most famous artists, Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith, on this session (Montgomery's last for Verve), and the results are incendiary- a near-ideal meeting of yin a.nd yang. Smith comes at your throat with his big attacks and blues runs while Montgomery responds with rounder, smoother octaves and single notes that still convey much heat. They are an amazing pair."

It’s a testament to Jimmy Smith’s volcanic creativity that the Hammond B3 organ firebrand recorded not one but two soul jazz classics—Midnight Special and Back at the Chicken Shack—in a single day when he entered Van Gelder Studio on April 25, 1960 with Stanley Turrentine on tenor saxophone, Kenny Burrell on guitar, and Donald Bailey on drums. Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition: Stereo, mastered from a digital source by Kevin Gray, manufactured at Optimal (180 g), padded inner sleeves.

Jimmy Smith (Hammond B3 organ); Stanley Turrentine (tenor sax); Kenny Burrell (guitar); Donald Bailey (drums)