Jimmy Smith
"Back At The Chicken Shack"
Jimmy Smith !This is the kind
of nasty, back-alley music that makes you wince in ecstasy. With
Stanley Turrentine's tenor and Kenny Burrell's guitar sharing
solo space, the Hammond master digs in with a blues-drenched
shovel. While certainly fluent in the bop idiom, Jimmy Smith
in organ work maintains a direct emotional peg that reflects
the swing and jump blues of a previous generation. Turrentine,
a relative newcomer at this point (1960), proves a perfect foil
for Smith's funky ideas, forgoing flashy bop runs in favor of
soulful, expressive passages. Even on chestnuts such as "When
I Grow Too Old to Dream" and "On the Sunny Side of
the Street," the foursome boils the melodies down to their
barest bluesy core. Back at the Chicken Shack is the prototypical
soul-jazz recording. --Marc Greilsamer |
