Jimmy Smith: Root Down [VERVE]

Why you'll love it

This Verve edition is remastered on 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket. The title track gave the Beastie Boys the groove for their own "Root Down," and the album reached No. 24 on Billboard's jazz chart.

This edition

• Remastered
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Stereo mix

About the album

By 1972 Jimmy Smith had been the king of the jazz organ for fifteen years, and he could have coasted. Instead he walked into the Bombay Bicycle Club in Los Angeles on February 8 with a young band who had been listening to funk and rock, and they pushed him somewhere new. Verve later expanded the album with the unedited jams, but the original six-track running order is the one here.

Wilton Felder of The Crusaders plays electric bass, Paul Humphrey drums, Arthur Adams guitar and Buck Clarke congas, with Steve Williams on harmonica. "Sagg Shootin' His Arrow" and "Root Down (And Get It)" lock into deep, greasy grooves, "After Hours" slows things into late-night blues, and Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" gets a warm organ makeover. "Slow Down Sagg" sends everyone home sweaty.

AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine counts it among the finest, most exciting records in Smith's catalogue. It is a live album recorded in a club with a bicycle in the name, and it still sounds like nobody in the room had any intention of pedalling home early.

Also at Kops: more Jimmy Smith on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Verve (cat# V6-8806), a reissue of the 1972 live album.