Jimmy Smith

Midnight Special is one of two soul jazz albums that Jimmy Smith recorded at Van Gelder Studio on a single day, 25 April 1960. The other is Back at the Chicken Shack. Blue Note issued it in 1961. It is the organist at his most relaxed, leading a quartet with tenor saxophone and guitar and no bassist.

Smith had been a self-taught pianist before he gave up the instrument in 1954 for the Hammond organ. He rented a warehouse in Philadelphia and practised for a year, coming out with a style that caught the ear of Alfred Lion at once. Lion billed him as The Incredible Jimmy Smith and recorded him as often as he could between 1956 and 1963. For this date the band was Stanley Turrentine on tenor saxophone, Kenny Burrell on guitar and Donald Bailey on drums, with Rudy Van Gelder engineering. The original sleeve notes were written by Del Shields.

Smith's title track opens the album at a laid-back, chugging pace and runs close to ten minutes, leaving room for Smith, Turrentine and Burrell to state their case at length. Turrentine's own A Subtle One follows. Jumpin' the Blues, co-written by Charlie Parker, is the up-tempo burner of the set, and the Jerome Kern standard Why Was I Born? gets a slow, deeply felt reading in which Turrentine's tone carries the melody. Count Basie's One O'Clock Jump closes the record. Smith handles the bass lines himself, so the organ fills the whole low end under the horn and guitar.

This is the Japanese Ultimate High Quality CD from Universal Music Japan, catalogue number UCCQ-9656, issued in 2024 with the remastering credited to Kevin Gray. It comes in a jewel case with obi strip, with the original sleeve notes reproduced on the back inlay.