Free Republic

Recorded across two sessions, ‘The Sermon!’ finds the Hammond organ master Jimmy Smith at his finest for Blue Note.Jimmy Smith wasn’t the first organist in jazz – Fats Waller, Count Basie, and Wild Bill Davis all preceded him – but he was the first notable practitioner of the Hammond B3 and gave the instrument credibility within a jazz setting thanks to Blue Note albums the likes of 1959’s The Sermon! and 1963’s Back At The Chicken Shack. He was also profoundly influential, his jaw-dropping virtuosity spawning a raft of nimble-fingered acolytes who followed in his wake – among them...

Before the sounds of the swinging sixties broke into the mainstream, the more individualistic youth of England’s capital city danced all night to the sounds of American jazz and soul music. Dark nightclubs and backstreet jazz bars saw an influx of sharply dressed youngsters, arriving on Italian scooters, hopped up on amphetamines, all hoping to hear the latest sounds emanating from the States. For many of them, it was the music of Jimmy Smith that they were desperate to hear. Smith was instrumental in the development of the mod subculture, with his albums on regular rotation in clubs like The...

Jimmy Smith, one of the best players to ever play for the Jacksonville Jaguars, said Wednesday that when it comes down to Colin Kaepernick or Tim Tebow, the team needs the latter. Smith told TMZ Sports he feared someone like Kaepernick would divide the locker room. "We don't need Colin Kaepernick on our team," the former NFL great said. "We need a guy like Tim Tebow who's a hometown hero who has love for the city anyway," Smith added. Smith denied there were any racial connotations behind the Jaguars’ reported decision to work out Tebow and then potentially give him...

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Jimmy Smith, an award-winning jazz organist who was considered a pioneer with the instrument, died of natural causes Tuesday at his home here. He was 79. "Jimmy Smith transformed the organ into a jazz instrument. Jazz has lost a pioneering talent, not to mention a one of a kind personality," National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia said Wednesday.