Livin' It Up! - Jimmy Smith

 

Mission Impossible

Livin' It Up!

Jimmy Smith

Arranged & Conducted by Oliver Nelson 

Produced by Esmond Edwards

Recorded May 13 and 14, 1968 at United Recording Studios, Hollywood

Engineer: Eddie Brackett

Remixed by Dave Greene at A&R Studios, New York City

Director of Engineering: Val Valentin

Cover Photo: Don Ornitz

Art Direction: Acy R. Lehman

Verve SW 91551

From the back cover: The long and consistently exciting career of Jimmy Smith as a recording artist takes on a new aspect in this album. The presence of a large orchestra is of course no longer an innovation in itself; however, there is an important innovation in that this time the orchestra includes strings.

Six years have passed since an important precedent was set in an LP known as Basin' – The Unpredictable Jimmy Smith (Verve V6-8474). On one side of that album, instead of his regular accompanying trio, Jimmy employed the services of Oliver Nelson as arranger and conductor, leading an ensemble of 16 top New Rock studio jazzmen. Walk On The Wild Side was the still-celebrated hit track from that album.

Since then, there have been many Smith-Nelson collaborations, all of them carefully conceived, brilliantly executed and, of course, acclaimed by an every-increasing audience as the colossus of the organ expand his area of acceptance to include the general record-buying public in addition to the jazz coterie.

During this period there were such memorable albums as Hobo Flats, Monster (best known for its inclusion of the unique Goldfinger), Got My Mojo Workin' (another first in that it marked Jimmy's debut as a vocalist), the intriguingly programmatic Peter And The Wolf, and a wild varied set called Hooch Cooche Man.

The addition of a string section seemed like a logical new extension to Jimmy, Oliver and producer Esmond Edwards. "Jimmy is a joy to work with, " says Oliver. "We never have any problems with him."

The Nelson touch was so skillfully applied, and the material so carefully selected, that there was never any danger of turning this into a conventional set of melodies with the string section holding long notes – the easy way out. Where the ten violins and four celli are employed, their use is discreet and intelligent. They are integrated part of a whole concept, reflecting Nelson's extensive experience in writing for strings. (One of his finest important classical  works was Soundpiece For String Quartet And Contralto in 1963; since then, of course, he has provided string-rich backgrounds for numerous LPs by leading pop and jazz singers.)

Completing the orchestra is a brass team, modest in number but packed with Hollywood heavy-weights; a pair of adaptable  reeds-and-woodwinds men: Howard Roberts on guitar; and a rhythm section that superbly complements Jimmy's deft handiwork by including regular bass (Ray Brown) and Carol Kaye with her Fender Bass.

The first impression that emerges from the hearing of these sides is that there has been no interference whatsoever with the basic characteristics always discernible in a Jimmy Smith performance. All the soul is there; the indispensable improvisational element is buoyantly present as ever.

"When it seemed appropriate for Jimmy to introduce the melody," says Oliver, "we worked it that way, while on other tunes the orchestra helps to establish the them before Jimmy takes over for the variations."

The segue from a string introduction to a Smith presentation of the melody furnishes a particularly striking study in contrasts on the beguiling standard This Nearly Was Mine, and please note the graceful percussion undercurrent of Larry Bunker, Burning Spear was an appropriate item for inclusion, having been composed by Richard Evans for a "Soulful Strings" ensemble. Flute and string work intermingled with the ever-potent Smith sound lend a new look to the funky minor theme. Jimmy is equally well served by the theme from the film, The Gentle Rain.

Big Boss Man is another of those very basic vehicles for a Jimmy Smith vocal. As usual, Jimmy compensates vividly in originality of timbre, and in the conviction he lends to the lyrics (for the lack of singing equipment in the traditional sense). Play Johnson eases in on this one, stealthy as a pink panther in his highly personal tenor solo.

One of the most remarkable tacks is Mission: Impossible, Lalo Schifrin, who wrote this ominous main theme for the television series, scored what was probably a first, in that TV and movie themes are not customarily written in 5/4 time. Dropping in at the studio while the Smith-Nelson version was being taped, he admired the unusual treatment (the theme is dubbed in length from 12 to 24 measures), declared he preferred this arrangement to his own, and wished he had through of this approach himself!

From the standpoint of orchestration, and for the ingenuity with which Nelson has incorporated seemingly disparate elements, this is one of the most creative in Oliver Nelson' long list of albums, credits. From Jimmy's own angle, the new instrumentation was a challenge met with his usual indomitable authority.

Listen, for example, to the brilliant correlation of moods as Valley Of The Dolls moves from theme to improvisation and back to theme. If the collaboration had produced nothing but this track, the venture already would have been amply justified. Fortunately, Jimmy and Oliver accomplished a great deal more. Whether laying a Smith or Nelson original, a blues, a recent pop hit or an old standard, James Oscar Smith reminds us, on every number, that despite the thousand imitations, he is still the master – with or without strings attached. – Leonard Feather, Author of The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Sixties.

Mission: Impossible

Refractions

The Gentle Rain

Burning Spear

Go Away Little Girl

Livin' It Up

This Nearly Was Mine

Big Boss Man

Valley Of The Dolls