Jimmy Smith – Bashin’: The Unpredictable Jimmy Smith

One organist, two ensemble settings

Bashin': The Unpredictable Jimmy Smith began Smith's Verve album career in 1962. Producer Creed Taylor placed a big band around him for part of the programme, with Oliver Nelson arranging and conducting. The other side features Smith in a trio. The two sides therefore present different views of the same central musician.

Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs studio in March 1962, the album brings Smith's small-group experience into contact with Nelson's larger ensemble. Brass, reeds and rhythm instruments change the scale around the Hammond. Listen for how the organ takes its place: answering the orchestra, stepping forward as a solo voice or becoming part of the combined texture.

A film theme sets the scene

“Walk On The Wild Side” opens the record. This is Elmer Bernstein and Mack David's theme for the 1962 film. It provides the starting point for Smith's encounter with Nelson's orchestra. The arrangement shapes the exchanges between the featured instrument and the full ensemble, giving the opening a different sense of proportion from an organ-trio performance.

“Ol' Man River” from Show Boat, Ellington's “In A Mellow Tone” and Nelson's “Step Right Up” complete the first side. Material from different backgrounds passes through the same instrumental setting. Listen for the way a section prepares an entrance or responds to an organ passage. Following those exchanges makes Nelson's work as an arranger audible in the unfolding structure of each piece.

Turning the record changes the conversation

The second side reduces the group to Smith, guitarist Quentin Warren and drummer Donald Bailey. “Beggar For The Blues”, the title track “Bashin'” and “I'm An Old Cowhand” make up this portion of the original programme. With fewer players, the jobs change. Guitar and organ share responsibility for the harmonic space while the drums sustain the movement.

That physical division is a good reason to approach the album on LP. Turning the record separates two distinct musical situations. The same featured voice appears first in Nelson's orchestral surroundings, then in the direct conversation of a small group. The subtitle “The Unpredictable Jimmy Smith” acquires a practical meaning through this design: his instrument adapts to different ensemble sizes while retaining the leading role in both.

This edition

AVER 98903, part of the Verve Acoustic Sounds Series, is a 180-gram stereo LP playing at 33⅓ RPM, pressed at Quality Record Pressings. Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab handled the mastering, using the original analog tapes as the source. The record comes in a Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket, completing this edition's presentation.

More by Jimmy Smith: The Cat · Organ Grinder Swing

Series: Verve – all 34 records: voices, organ and bossa nova

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.