Still fresh and ripe today as vintage wine!
Terje Biringvad | Oslo, Norway | 10/29/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The "Straight Life" album covers a familiar side of Jimmy Smith - mellow and up-tempo tunes masterfully led by Smith's bluesy and boppish technique and arrangements. Smith even plays the Hammond B-3 without percussion on two of the tunes...very seldom heard. The remarkable on this album is only one of the 10 tunes are spinning around Smith well known 12-bar format, the result is a refreshing approach by the trio to lesser-known but great jazz standards like "Swanee", "Sweet Sue, Just You" and Coleman Hawkins original "Stuffy". Jimmy Smith's trio with Warren / Bailey were amongst the tightest and best organ trios ever produced, then it's a pity that guitarist Quentin Warren is left with very little space for his inventive guitar improvisation. To be rated as a FIVE star album, "Straight Life" simply needed more variations from the trio so that the listener don't loose interest. By all means, "Straight Life" is an essential recording and addition to the Jimmy Smith discography.
I have a general skepticism to releases from the Blue Note vaults when the recordings are labeled "Unissued" or "Rejected" in the original Blue Note recordings statistics/overview by Alfred Lion (see page 117 in "Blue Note label - a discography by Rupli/Cuscuna"). With the speed and number of general releases made in 1961 by Blue Note artists, there must simply be a reason why these "unissued" labeled recordings by the regular Jimmy Smith trio (Quentin Warren on guitar and drummer Donald Bailey) wasn't released at the time. Since the tracks are recorded by Rudy van Gelder, the overall recording quality is of high "Van Gelder" standard, so it can't be the recording that put this record on the shelves. So my presumption is that the Blue Note simply decided to release "Jimmy Smith Plays Fats Waller" recorded 6 months later in January 1962 with the same trio as the annual release by Jimmy Smith and just stored these great recordings on the shelf until further notice.
"
Subpar
John Titsworth | New Orleans, Louisiana | 08/25/2007
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Though Blue Note saw fit to issue unreleased material from Jimmy's trio of 1961 that established Jimmy as a major musical innovator, this session is surprisingly bland and subpar. The trio renders the tunes competently but without the panache or vitality expected from this potentialy soulful and exciting trio as evidenced by their other Blue Note efforts. As much as I love this edition of Jimmy's trio, perhaps this session should have remained in the can."
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1