"A great album" said the weird looking guy. Half of his hair was gone, and the rest was longer than
comfortable. He was holding in his hands Jimmy Smith's
Fourmost, which I had just recently selected from a desk full of
CDs.
I was in Shades. A music shop in Ankara, Turkey. The man was the owner of the place. So, I figured he probably knew what he was talking about.
Later that day it turned out I was right. The album was great, featuring, aside from Smith himself, Stanley Turrentine at tenor sax, Kenny Burrell at the guitar and Grady Tate at drums. Tate also sings My Funny Valentine.
Jimmy Smith sounds bluesy. Or at least that's what he sounded to me that evening. He's surely the master of Hammond B-3. I was stunned to realize that, according to the liner notes, nobody's playing those fluid bass lines. Later I found out that it was Jimmy playing them with his feet. I still can't understand how he manages though.
As a note (thanks
cordelia):
Fourmost is from
Milestone, not from
Verve. I guess that's why it is not listed in
mcSey's write-up.