TALKIN' VERVE: ROOTS OF ACID JAZZ includes performances by Jimmy Smith with Johnny Pate's Orchestra and Oliver Nelson's Orchestra.
This is part of Verve's Talkin' Verve: Roots of Acid Jazz series.
With his lean funk arrangements and fat Hammond organ sound, Smith's evocative instrumental jams of the '60s and '70s became one of the favorite staples in the sampling repertoire of club DJs in the '90s. Targeting the revivalist interest in his work, Verve compiled a disc of some of Smith's tastiest grooves from 11 separate LP's released on Verve since 1963. Smith's sound, a melange of blues, Gospel, jazz and soul--at times backed only by guitar and drums, at others with a rollicking big band--is irresistible. As contextualized here as a precursor to acid jazz, it's also clearly influential.
The slinky stomp of "Ape Woman," the poly-rhythmic, conga-powered workout with guitarist Wes Montgomery in "Mellow Mood," the heavy-lidded riffing of "Groove Drops;" Smith cornered the market on hipper-than-hip-shaking before most of today's clubbers were in diapers. Since some of these tracks are on CD for the first time, TALKIN' VERVE: ROOTS OF ACID JAZZ is a valuable collection for long-time fans and newcomers alike, serving as reminder to all that, in order to get the real thing, one has to go to the source.
