Photo: Hammondite / CC BY 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Jimmy Smith is the reason the Hammond B-3 organ is a jazz instrument at all — before him, it was basically a church and novelty curiosity, and he turned it into something that could swing, burn, and flat-out cook with the best of them. Growing up in Norristown, Pennsylvania, he had serious piano chops first, and that foundation is all over his playing: the left hand walking bass lines, the right hand lines that think like a horn. His Blue Note recordings from the late 1950s — things like "The Sermon" stretching out past twenty minutes — are just staggering, and his crossover into soul jazz in the 1960s gave the whole genre a grittier, earthier pulse. He earned the NEA Jazz Masters Award in 2005, the year he died, which feels bittersweet but fitting. The man basically invented a vocabulary that everyone from Groove Holmes to Larry Young to Joey DeFrancesco had to reckon with. Absolutely essential.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Jimmy Smith
- Name (Japanese)
- ジミー・スミス
- Reading
- じみー・すみす
- Born
- December 8, 1925 – February 8, 2005
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Sagittarius / Ox
- Origin
- Norristown, Pennsylvania, United States
- Occupation
- organist / pianist / jazz musician / recording artist / composer
2. Background
Awards & achievements
- NEA Jazz Masters
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Jimmy Smith born?
December 8, 1925 – February 8, 2005.
Where is Jimmy Smith from?
Jimmy Smith is from Norristown, Pennsylvania, United States.
What does Jimmy Smith do?
Jimmy Smith works as organist, pianist, jazz musician, recording artist, composer.
Organist — see all → · Pianist — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.