I was reading this month's Down Beat and Jimmy Smith has (finally) made it to the Hall Of Fame. This Retrospective is an excellent place to start for new listeners or for Jimmy Smith fanatics alike. Every cut on the 4 CDs are worthy of inclusion and there are some great ones included for Jazz or Blues fans. I'm listening to my copy right now. I just got finished listening to the "Duel" between Jimmy and Art Blakey, a 10 minute duet between B3 and drums that is alone worth the price of admission. This boxed set includes a nice booklet with a bio of Smith's career and the dates of recording of the songs, etc.
This boxed set would make an excellent gift idea or just a great way to add some seminal organ Jazz/Blues to your collection. The people who this would probably appeal to are keyboard afficionados, Jazz history buffs, any Hammond B3 organ fans, and even anyone who enjoys the awesome sound of that classic B3 organ/Leslie speaker combination. After all, you might as well get some inspiration from the source, because Jimmy Smith is the first and most important B3 Organ player from the 50s to the 80s. He is a "god" of the B3 in Jazz.
