The Sermon (Jimmy Smith album)

This article is about the album by Jimmy Smith. For the album by Hampton Hawes, see Sermon (disambiguation).
The Sermon!
Studio album by
Jimmy Smith
ReleasedDecember 1959
Recorded
  • August 25, 1957
  • February 25, 1958
StudioManhattan Towers, NYC
GenreSoul jazz
Length40:10
LabelBlue Note
BLP 4011
ProducerAlfred Lion[1]
Jimmy Smith chronology
House Party
(1958) 		The Sermon!
(1959) 		Crazy! Baby
(1959)

The Sermon! is the eleventh studio album by jazz organist Jimmy Smith recorded on August 25, 1957 and February 25, 1958 and released on Blue Note in 1959—Smith's fifteenth album for the label.[2][3][4]

Background

The Sermon! was the second of two albums recorded on two dates at The Manhattan Towers Hotel Ballroom, the first was Smith's previous album, House Party (1958). Rudy Van Gelder used the ballroom as a recording studio for recording sessions in 1957-1958, while he was still using his parents' Hackensack, New Jersey home studio to record artists for Blue Note. He mainly used it for larger groups of musicians that would not fit in his parents' living room, or when New York was a more convenient location to record the artists involved.[citation needed]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
DownBeat[6]

AllMusic's Lindsay Planer described the album as "a prime example of Smith and company's myriad of talents."[7]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Jimmy Smith, except as noted.

Side 1
No.TitleDate recordedLength
1."The Sermon"February 25, 195820:12
Side 2
No.TitleWriter(s)Date recordedLength
1."J.O.S." August 25, 195711:56
2."Flamingo"
February 25, 19588:02

Personnel

Musicians

August 25, 1957

February 25, 1958

Technical personnel

References

  1. ^ Gauvreau, Mark (2000-10-04). "Jimmy Smith's Storied Jazz 'Sermon'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  2. ^ Sullivan, Steve (17 May 2017). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings - Steve Sullivan - Google Books. ISBN 9781442254497. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  3. ^ "Pop Jazz; Jimmy Smith, Artist Of The Jazz Organ, Plays Fat Tuesday'S - The New York Times". Nytimes.com. 1981-09-11. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  4. ^ "Jimmy Smith: 'The Sermon'". NPR. 2001-08-01. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  5. ^ Allmusic review
  6. ^ DeMichael, Don (3 March 1960). "Jimmy Smith: The Sermon". DownBeat. Vol. 27, no. 5. p. 39.
  7. ^ Planer, Lindsay. "The Sermon!". Allmusic. Retrieved 3 July 2010.


Stub icon

This 1950s jazz album-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.