From Reuters
Jazz organ pioneer Jimmy Smith dies
Organist Jimmy Smith, who helped change the sound of jazz by almost single-handedly introducing the soulful electric riffs of the Hammond B-3 organ, has died at age 79 at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona.
A spokeswoman for the Concord record label said Smith died of natural causes on Tuesday.
Born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, on December 8, 1925, Smith ruled the Hammond B-3 in the 1950s and 1960s and blended jazz, blues, R&B, bebop and even gospel into an exciting stew that became known as "soul jazz" - an idiom that produced many imitators, followers and fans.
"Anyone who plays the organ is a direct descendant of Jimmy Smith. It's like Adam and Eve - you always remind someone of Jimmy Smith," jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco said in an interview with Reuters last year.
"He was the big pioneer, not only of the organ but musically. He was doing things that (John) Coltrane did in the '60s, but he did them back in '56 and '57," he added.
Paired with jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery in the 1960s, Smith first made his mark as a soloist on Blue Note Records where, as one critic noted, he turned the Hammond B-3 organ "into a down and dirty orchestra".
Among his best known albums on Blue Note were The Sermon! Back at the Chicken Shack, Midnight Special, Home Cookin', and Prayer Meetin'.
The pipe organ had been used in jazz in the 1930s by such famous players as Fats Waller but it was obviously too big and too heavy to be lugged into jazz clubs.
Smith was able to take his electric B-3 on the road and created a jazz trio of organ, drums and either guitar or saxophone.
Smith himself provided the bass lines by using the organ's foot pedals.
-Reuters