Root Down

Jimmy Smith - Root Down

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CD Details

Artist: Jimmy Smith
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Extra tracks, Live, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2000-07-18
Music Label: Polygram Records
Soundtracks:

Sagg Shootin' His Arrow
For Everyone Under The Sun
After Hours
Root Down (And Get It)
Let's Stay Together
Slow Down Sagg
Root Down (And Get It)

Music reviews of Root Down

Music Review: Amazing one-time groove session for the ages!
Rating: 5 Stars

I'm pretty sure that this is the only time these guys ever got together to play, and it might as well have been that way......this album is one of those sessions that seems to flow so seamlessly and make sense that it could not have happened if for the fact that five talented musicians got together and decided to "play" in the most simple sense of the word. My introduction to Root Down came by way of my love of Steely Dan - Wilton Felder and Paul Humphrey, two Steely Dan session players, are on this album. After hearing them in the infamous, carefully controlled Steely Dan studio environment, hearing them here made real the suspicion that these guys could REALLY cut loose if they were given the right opportunity. It was also great to discover Arthur Adams' guitar playing with this purchase as well. I'm never been that much of a Jimmy Smith fan in terms of jazz organ (Larry Young holds that honor - Unity is amazing) but the contrast in terms of background between the (up to this point in his career) jazzy and R&Bish Smith and the forward-looking "side men" (even going on into the future after this recording - Paul Humphrey playing with Frank Zappa) makes for a great album. It's perenially described as funky - and this it certainly is - but there are other gems to be found here than just "Root Down". "For Everyone Under the Sun" and the version of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" sound paticularly good to me, even though normally I don't listen to songs with such lyricism and melody. Again, it's the combination of the players that make the takes on the more standardish cuts on thtis album special. Also, the alternative version of "Root Down" is amazing - it's not quite as happy and polished as the first version, but it more than compensates with some viscerally funky moments as well as some fairly noisy ones that show Smith thriving in an area for which he is not known. Superimposing the excellent, warm, breathing live sound of the recording makes these performances even more of a special album.

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