Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack (1963), Blue Note 3579051, Blue Note Classic Series pressing

 

Had you not already seen the cover, you would be forgiven for thinking this was a Stanley Turrentine LP rather than Jimmy Smith, because the young tenor saxiphonist totally dominates the soloing on this classic soul jazz album. Recorded in 1960, the same year Turrentine made his debut as a leader for Blue Note, but not released until 1963, this record is considered by the reviewers at allmusic.com to be the best in Smith's long and extremely prolific career. And yet, he is not really the star here--Turrentine is. Smith, who started recording for Blue Note in 1956 and is considered to be the man who practically defined Hammond B3 soul jazz (Jack McDuff and Jimmy McGriff might disagree with that assessment), doesn't go on many mind-blowing, virtuosic solos as he does on many of his other albums, at least not until the closing cut here, "Messy Bessie." Kenny Burrell is also featured here on guitar, but except for a short solo on the opening title track, he is practically absent until he gets a longer solo to show his skills also on the final track. That means the rest of the solo space is taken up by Turrentine, and that's actually a good thing because he is brilliant, particularly on the Hammerstein & Romburg standard "When I Grow Too Old to Dream," which ends Side 1. So despite its reputation, this is not a quintessential example of organ-based soul jazz, but it is an excellent standard for soul jazz in general.

As with the Sonny Clark LP reviewed earlier on this blog, all the selections in the Blue Note Classic Series are remastered wonderfully by Kevin Gray--Turrentine's horn really jumps out of the speakers here. The Classic Series LPs are pressed at Optimal rather than RTI as on the Tone Poet Series, but I have not had a problem with any of the former--all of them have great audio fidelity and no surface noise. The jackets for the Classic Series are also a notch downward from the Tone Poets, being a standard single-slot cardboard sleeve instead of the heavyweight Stoughton-printed gatefolds used on the Tone Poets. But the price is also lower--$25.98 for the latest releases in the series compared with $35.98 for the Tone Poets. In other words, the Blue Note Classic Series LPs are a bargain that give buyers a chance to own audiophile versions of the most desirable titles in the storied Blue Note catalog at a fraction of what you would have to pay for even a 1970s reissue.

Do I Really Need This record?  Since I didn't already own this album in any other format, it's considered the best in Smith's legendary career, and, as with the Clark LP, I snagged it on sale for 20% off, it would have been negligent not to add this to the collection.