When I Grow Too Old to Dream (Jimmy Smith’s version)

Stanley Turrentine (tenor sax), Jimmy Smith (Hammond B-3 organ) and Donald Bailey (drums). From the album Back at the Chicken Shack (1963).

As a child, Jimmy Smith had studied piano and double bass, but when he heard Wild Bill Davis he decided to play the organ. In 1955, accompanied by a guitarist and a drummer, he made his debut in Atlantic City and soon caused a sensation by boosting the band with his impetuous bass lines played with the organ pedals and producing all kinds of moans, buzzes, grunts, shouts, squawks and howls with his instrument.

Then he moved to New York, where he caught the attention of Alfred Lion, and for several years he made numerous recordings for Blue Note with very good sales figures. His successes on jukeboxes and radio gave strength to his career, but Smith often recorded long tracks that didn’t fit on the face of a 45 rpm disc. Nevertheless, the records were sold spite their extension. The great intensity and the powerful impulse that this music conveyed was an anticipation in soul jazz of John Coltrane’s later marathon performances.

Turrentine exposes a theme with plenty of swing at medium tempo in a pleasant way and then starts a nice solo. His melodic line is easily understandable and cordial, but in the end he is more hurried. He is followed by Smith with a friendly speech showing his creativity and suggestive ideas. Turrentine returns to make a second solo something more powerful than the previous one, but always keeping his composure. To conclude, the group re-exposes the theme.