Jimmy Smith Home Cookin'...plus

Jimmy Smith, the award-winning jazz organist, was born on Dec. 8, 1925. His innovatory technique on many small-combo recordings for Blue Note in the late Fifties had al-ready been highly acclaimed, was discovered by a mass audience when he was teamed with an Oliver Nelson-arranged big band in 1962 for his exciting adaptation of Elmer Bernstein's 'Walk On The Wild Side' theme (Verve). It hit the pop charts and catapulted him to stardom.

His hit Verve albums - Hobo Flats, Any Number Can Win, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, etc. - followed the earlier less commercial Blue Note releases (Home Cookin', Back At The Chicken Shack, Prayer Meeting) which had set the style and pace for all the jazz organists to follow. In 1966, he tried his hand at singing, scoring minor hits with gruff interpreta-tions of the Muddy Waters blues 'Got My Mojo Working' and `Hoochie Coochie Man'.