Track Listing

1. Sermon
2. J.O.S.
3. Flamingo

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53874 in Music
• Released on: 2000-09-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Album Description
The 20-minute title tune is a priceless meditation on the blues. Sidemen include Lee Morgan Lou Donaldson, Tina Brooks, Kenny Burrell and Art Blakey. This CD features the album in its original form.

LEE MORGAN, trumpet; LOU DONALDSON, GEORGE COLEMAN, alto saxophones; TINA BROOKS, tenor saxophone; KENNY BURRELL, EDDIE McFADDEN, guitars; JIMMY SMITH, organ; ART BLAKEY, DONALD BAILEY, drums.

Amazon.com
Jimmy Smith put the Hammond B-3 organ on the jazz map for good in the 1950s. The Sermon, dating from 1958, is among his best recordings, featuring the exceptional lineup of trumpeter Lee Morgan, altoist Lou Donaldson, tenorman Tina Brooks, guitarist Kenny Burrell, drummer Art Blakey, and others. Smith's smooth, vibratoless sound perfectly suits the nimble and prodding leads of the player as he touches on R&B, soul, blues and, of course, gospel. This brings us to "The Sermon," which is reason enough to seek this gem out. Smith's group takes the title tune out for a 20-minute, fully improvised, slow-blues stroll, during which each player shares the spotlight. The soul-stirring feeling set in motion by Smith rubs off on the other musicians to make this tune and album a defining moment in organ jazz, and even in soul music. The Sermon stands as a sparkling gem in the Rudy Van Gelder reissue series. --Tad Hendrickson

Customer Reviews

"The Sermon" Answers Our Prayers
"The Sermon" is Jimmy Smith's best album bar none. Restored to the catalog with the RVG series, hopefully this most classic of jazz organ albums will never go out of print again. An amazing array of musicians joins Smith on this session, including Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, Lou Donaldson, the under-recognized genius Tina Brooks, Kenny Burrell and Donald Bailey. Buyers should be aware that this RVG version differs drastically from the original CD issue. Gone are the wonderful bonus tracks "S' Wonderful," "Blue Room," "Lover Man," "Confirmation" and "Au Private." Instead, the RVG edition matches the original vinyl sequencing -- the tracks are "The Sermon," "J.O.S." and "Flamingo." The disc is still terrific since the classic title-track, "The Sermon," which clocks in at more than twenty minutes, is one of jazz's great extended compositions, even if it is only a fiery jam session and not an avant-garde flight. Simply because of this song, "The Sermon" deserves a place in any jazz collection, beginner or advanced. The fact that the RVG reissue has cleaned up some of the slight muddiness and low-end organ distortion of the original disc, is all the more reason to buy this fantastic album. With that being said, I'm still holding on to my original CD for those five bonus cuts. Hopefully they will be reissued with improved sound at a later date.

Legendary
This is one of my favourites Blue note sessions. On the sermon, well, every solo is perfect, although Tina Brook's solo is just one of the best I've ever heard, he could play the blues no dubt about that. And Lee Morgan on Flamingo, well, lets just say for me, this is the definitive version. On JOS, a fast paced number, you can really hear the magic of these sessions: Jimmy Smiths instructs with his organ that is time for a player to stop his solo, but Lee Morgan just ignores him and keeps going! A memorable moment from a great session. I agree: all tracks from this session should have been packed and sold as "The Sermon", but with the great remaster, you kind of forget about it. Now, go get 'House Party' with the rest of the tracks from this session, another excellent purchase.

On Any Given Sunday
It's Sunday afternoon on the strip, and one club has become the magnet for musicians who today have no other jobs to report to. The B3 player starts it off with a medium-tempo blues in F, soon other guys show up, unpack their horns and take their individual turns on the stand--a guitarist, a tenor player, trumpet man, and an altoist.

Scenes such as this were once commonplace, and "The Sermon" above all recalls a time when the music was looser and freer, less organized and protective, more communicative and human. The continuing popularity of Jimmy Smith's "Sermon" is, we can hope, not merely representative of a retro trend but testimony to the enduring power of music played "in the moment" by the combination of capable musicians and the most common of all denominators--the blues.

Not that the performances are ordinary (though neither are they extraordinary). Kenny not only solos with economy but shows how to make guitar mesh with organ, Tina keeps it direct while hinting at formidable bebop chops held in reserve, Lee curtails technique and playfully accentuates the beat, Lou finishes up sounding like Cannonball. Meanwhile, Blakey just keeps laying down that unyielding backbeat and Jimmy constructs a solid bass-line foundation while using his right hand to pump the rhythm (often "doo-dot" on the first beat of the measure) and to create harmonic tensions (this blues man loves to raise the 11th of those dominant chords).

Jimmy's accomplishment on this track has less to do with his virtuosity (in fact, there's little of it--even the registration bars remain the same, and Leslie effects are minimal) than his supplying the power and energy for the session. It just keeps building and building, mainly because Jimmy never stops coming. And like sermons of the morning variety, this late-Sunday variation is alternately spiritual and sensual, heady and earthy, climaxing in a cartharsis no less inspiring.