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Album Review

Opus de Funk: Johnny "Hammond" Smith

Read "Johnny "Hammond" Smith" reviewed by Derek Taylor


Individuality was a prized commodity during the soul jazz organ boom that bridged the Fifties and Sixties. With so many ensembles exploding like popcorn kernels in the cultural kettles of numerous North American cities, the critical slight of “a dime a dozen” carried more clout than most of the artists wanted to admit.

Prestige producer Esmond Edwards had an ear for the unusual, having signed Eric Dolphy to the label’s New Jazz subsidiary, so his advocacy of ...

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Recording

Johnny "H" Smith: Opus de Funk

Johnny "H" Smith: Opus de Funk

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Organist Johnny “Hammond" Smith isn't as well known todayas organists like Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Shirley Scott, Don Patterson and Charles Earland. I'm not sure why. Perhaps his name was too close to Johnny Smith's (the guitarist) and John Hammond's (the producer). Nevertheless, Smith was a high-energy player with enormous soul power and restraint. His recording career roughly divides into two parts—his jazz-soul sessions for Riverside and Prestige in the '60s and his jazz-funk CTI records of the '70s for ...

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