Jimmy Smith: The Cat [VERVE]

Why you'll love it

This remastered 180g pressing comes in a gatefold jacket, cut from Verve's stereo album. The Cat climbed to No. 12 on the Billboard 200, and its title track crossed over to the Hot 100.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Remastered
• Gatefold jacket
• Stereo

About the album

Most organists of 1964 were happy to swing with a trio. Jimmy Smith walked into Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs and parked his Hammond B-3 in front of a full brass section, with Lalo Schifrin waving the baton and producer Creed Taylor making sure every horn landed where it should.

Schifrin built the arrangements around film music as much as jazz. The "Theme From Joy House" and the title track both come from the Alain Delon thriller Joy House, which Schifrin scored, and Elmer Bernstein's main title from The Carpetbaggers gets the same widescreen treatment. Then the blues take over: "Basin Street Blues," W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues," Smith's own "Delon's Blues" and a slow-cooked "Blues In The Night." Kenny Burrell plays guitar, Grady Tate is on drums, and the brass section reads like a who's who of New York sessions, with Thad Jones, Snooky Young, Urbie Green and Jimmy Cleveland all in the room.

It's soul jazz with the lights turned up, punchy and cinematic and built to be played loud. The cover cat looks rather pleased with himself, and having heard the record, we can see why.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Verve (cat# V6-8587), a reissue of the 1964 album.