Description
Jimmy Smith – Midnight Special – 180 Gram Vinyl Record
Jimmy Smith recorded Midnight Special during a single April 25, 1960 session that also produced Back at the Chicken Shack. The meeting at Van Gelder Studio brought his Hammond B3 organ together with Stanley Turrentine on tenor saxophone, Kenny Burrell on guitar and Donald Bailey on drums. Rather than filling the record with short pieces, Midnight Special gives five selections substantial room to develop. Its appeal lies in the relationship between Smith’s organ and the other melodic voices, with the group changing size on different tracks. Blues material and established standards provide a shared language, while the musicians’ contrasting sounds make the session identifiable as more than an organ showcase.
The title track opens with an unhurried groove, giving Smith, Turrentine and Burrell a setting in which each voice can register clearly. The organ’s sustained sound and the guitar’s more sharply defined attack create different possibilities for phrasing around the tenor. Smith’s original extends for almost ten minutes, allowing the group to establish its character without rushing from theme to conclusion. That opening is especially useful for hearing how an organ-led group can maintain a firm rhythmic identity while leaving space within it. Bailey’s drums support the movement, and the absence of a separate bass player places another part of the ensemble’s foundation within Smith’s role at the keyboard.
A Subtle One, written by Turrentine, completes the first side in a trio setting without Burrell. The change makes the saxophone-organ relationship more direct and gives Smith’s instrument a different proportion of the overall sound. Burrell returns for Jumpin’ the Blues on the second side, adding his guitar to a brisker performance drawn from the Kansas City blues tradition. The contrast between these settings is part of the album’s substance. The same core group can work with a more relaxed pace, reduce the instrumentation or increase the energy without losing the connection established at the beginning. Turrentine’s composition also gives the tenor player a role in shaping the repertoire itself.
Why Was I Born? offers the program’s ballad setting, again with organ, tenor and drums. The Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II song shifts the emphasis toward melodic interpretation, allowing the saxophone and organ to carry a familiar tune through a quieter arrangement. One O’Clock Jump then restores the quartet for a closing performance of Count Basie’s composition. Those selections connect Smith’s group to different areas of jazz and popular-song history while retaining its own instrumental sound. Burrell’s presence on the title track, Jumpin’ the Blues and One O’Clock Jump supplies a useful thread across the larger-group performances, with the two trio pieces creating distinct spaces around them.
Midnight Special captures Smith during his prolific Blue Note years, when the Hammond B3 was becoming a central voice in small-group jazz. Turrentine’s tenor, Burrell’s guitar and Bailey’s drums make the record an ensemble encounter as much as a portrait of the leader. The shared session with Back at the Chicken Shack places it within a particularly productive moment, while the five-track selection has a character of its own, moving from Smith’s original to Turrentine’s writing and established material. This stereo Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series release presents the original LP on 180-gram vinyl. Kevin Gray mastered the edition all-analog from the original master tapes, and Optimal handled the pressing, preserving the program from Midnight Special through One O’Clock Jump.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
A1. Midnight Special
A2. A Subtle One
B1. Jumpin’ the Blues
B2. Why Was I Born?
B3. One O’Clock Jump
