(Jimmy Smith, organ; Kenny Burrell, guitar; Eddie McFadden, guitar; Ray Crawford, guitar; Philly Joe Jones, drums; Donald Bailey, drums; Bill Henderson, vocals)
No one can argue that Jimmy Smith isn’t one of the best jazz organists of all time. On the Rudy Van Gelder edition reissue of Smith’s Softly as a Summer Breeze, Smith’s virtuosity is on full display. Like a Bird or a Rollins on his organ, Smith plays with a confidence and a creativity that seems supernatural.
On the album’s first track, These Foolish Things, Smith plays an awesome stuttering solo that’s a marvel of invention and space. When Kenny Burrell comes in after Smith’s first solo, it’s like the groove has dug a hole and the guitarist just has to sweetly sink into it. On Thelonious Monk’s Hackensack, Smith and Burrell’s interplay is amazing. They trade lines and echo each other’s flourishes like a soul jazz Dizzy and Bird. Smith’s solos are scary inventive, his mixture of speed, clarity, and melodic and rhythmic invention a thing of genius.
Sometimes I’m Happy finds Smith trill-happy, fluttering his fingers to find out how many trills he can fit in before he finds the last chord of the change to sum it all up. Once again, Burrell seems to be feeding off Smith’s solos, but instead of trying to out-play him, he uses the space left by Smith to play gorgeous, economical solos that dodge and dart around the downbeat. On Someone to Watch Over Me, Burrell is replaced by Eddie McFadden, who plays the melody slowly with the guitar’s bass notes, letting the leisurely pace of the song wander his fingers into the higher notes.
On tracks 7-10, Smith and his trio back Bill Henderson, the under-appreciated jazz vocalist signed to Blue Note in the late fifties. On Willow Weep for Me, Henderson sings a winding melody full of unexpected notes, while guitarist Ray Crawford plays in the spaces between Henderson’s vocals. On Ain’t No Use, Henderson sings a 12-bar melody in an unorthodox fashion, perpetually refusing to resolve the melody with a lower note, instead singing the proper note in a higher range. It’s a neat trick that keeps the listener waiting for the melody to complete itself.
Softly as a Summer Breeze is another Jimmy Smith classic and with the addition of the tracks backing Bill Henderson, it’s a chance to hear the front-and-center organist playing backup. But guitarists Kenny Burrell and Eddie McFadden are just as amazing, both clearly inspired by Smith’s genius and creativity.
Tracks: These Foolish Things, Hackensack, It Could Happen To You, Sometimes I’m Happy, Someone to Watch Over Me, Home Cookin’, Willow Weep For Me, Ain’t No Use, Angel Eyes, Ain’t That Love
– Daniel Krow
