Re: JS In Atlanta

[complain@atl.mindspring.com]

At 09:14 PM 10/27/96 -0500, you wrote:
>
>I've been asked to fill y'all in on JS's performance last night in Atlanta.
>
>IT WAS GREAT! Jimmy is the MASTER of the jazz organ....
>
>The show was held at Level2, an art gallery just a few blocks past the CNN
>center in downtown Atlanta. The club is actually called Wally's Alley and
>is an annex of the gallery. There had been 2 performances Friday night and
>there were two last night at 8:00 and 11:00. This is a great venue for jazz
>and this was opening week. They had drinks for $3 and plates of food for
>$7. The artwork was fantastic. The show was held in an alley (tent for a
>roof). There were folding chairs to sit in, lined up like in a church. The
>stage was about 18" up and everyone could see well. A magnificent, polished
>B3 with two side by side Leslies (prob. 122's) behind, sat front and center
>about 4 feet back from the front of the stage.
>
>The show was opened on time by "Diva Songstress" Theresa Hightower. She was
>backed by a great bass player (SKB amps are the thing!), her son on drums
>and a fellow from detroit (Larry? McDonald) on DX7. The old DX looked
>absurd up there by the B3, but this guy played his ass off. The band was
>super-tight. The mostly black, middle aged, very hip crowd was clapping and
>rockin' from the first note of......what else...."The Down Home Blues". The
>blues national anthem as Theresa said. After 40 mins. or so Theresa
>finished and there was a 15 min. break while they cleared the stage.
>
>Jimmy was introduced around 9:00. His band was Jimmy Jackson (Drums),
>Jacques Lajour (Box Guitar) and Jimmy Brown (Trumpet, flute, Alto Sax,
>Trombone, and Glockenspiel). Naturally Jimmy began his spiel right off the
>bat. "There will be no yelling between songs or that kinda shit. This is
>supposed to me music..you know??" It was totally tongue in cheek and he had
>no bitches with the audience all night. BTW, this 71 year young guy looks
>great. He walks tall and hardly has got any grey hair for someone his age.
>
>They started with an uptempo jazz tune I never heard, Kind of a band intro
>thing. Next was a blues, Jimmy sang a little. "Sweet Sue" followed. Then
>"Organ Grinder's Swing". After the first four tunes, Jimmy recognized his
>niece who was sitting next to me in the middle of the 2nd row.[[BTW J.
>(AUTHORITY) when you introduced your niece (Ms. Manning from Philly) you
>made a quip about her sitting next to a cat with a mustache. I know you saw
>me; what was I wearing? If you can't tell us, YOU AINT HIM.]]
>
>OK back to bizness. During the blues tune he chewed our ass for not
>yelling! "You can yell and shit in this part..heh heh". Jacques then played
>"Sunny" and another ballad on solo guitar. Everyone left the stage. This
>guy plays alot like Wes and it's the first time I've heard any jazz guitar
>player stick to the traditional lines in many years. It was great.
>
>When the band returned, they did another blues tune. "Hey baby, put your
>big leg over mine.." Might have been made up, but the man had us totally
>cracked up with this one. It was the best tune of the night. He quoted a
>good many of the classic blues licks you'd never expect to hear from a jazz
>player. It was total honky tonk.
>
>The organ and Leslies sounded killer. Almost too clean. Richard from
>"Numerous Complaints" said they were working on it. There was absolutely no
>spit. Only the slightest  hint of distortion on the loudest passage. My
>guess is that Jimmy requested this kind of tone. It went very well with his
>playing style:
>
Hi Michael:

Sorry to take so long to reply....The organ is our "rent once a year piece",
totally stock, except for some caps and tubes of course.  The 122's also are
two of the nicest ones we have and have had no mods either.  The miking
"technology" consisted of what the club supplied (they had not requested any
mikes from us) and consisted of, are you ready??, two Realistic SM-58
knock-offs (although they did have the much sought after on/off switch, just
like a stock "Mr. Microphone!").  We also realized that there were no mike
stands so we fashioned one out of one of those cheesy, aluminum music stands
that you get when you take your first cornet lesson in grade school. Mics
were placed behind one Leslie, one lower right, the other upper left, aimed
at an angle toward the rotors.  Both Leslie volumes were rolled back to
right between 5 & 6 so they wouldn't break up until Mr. Smith wanted them to....

On a less technical note, Mr. Smith was very gracious and easy to work with
on our end.  He stayed well after the last Saturday night show and, much to
the surprise and delight of our tech who had come to retrieve the organ,
continued to play while the place was being cleaned up.  After about 15
minutes by himself, he stopped to get a beer and asked our tech, Dan to play
something for him!!  Dan, no slouch himself, was understandably somewhat
more than terrified but, at the insistence of Mr. Smith,  began a mid-tempo
blues in C.  About 3-4 minutes into it, Mr. Smith came up on stage and began
to comp chords on the lower manual while Dan kicked bass and soloed.  They
traded comping and soloing for about 10-15 minutes while Mr.Smith
demonstrated alternate voicings, phrasing, etc., a mini-lesson with the
master!!

Dan, who has vowed to "never wash that organ again" is still telling
everyone he sees about it, in more and more detail each time!! (pretty soon
it'll be him who was showing Mr. Smith the altered chords!!)  At last
sighting, Dan was down at the Texaco Quick Stop telling the Iranian  guy
behind the counter about it!!

Anyway, all this to say that it was a very cool weekend for us.  It was a
great sounding room and a great organ...add a player like Jimmy Smith and
you don't need anything but a Realistic mic/aluminum music stand rig to have
a good show!!

Best Regards,
Your friends @ Numerous Complaints Music
Atlanta





>All tunes were 888800000 or an approximation there of. No vibrato (chorus).
>2nd, soft. Slow motors OFF. It almost sounded like an XB3, but the
>percussion was too real sounding to be XB3. No smears. No Leslie to fast
>except at the end of one tune while the crowd was clapping. The musical
>statement? "I can play my ass off, I don't need tricks or effects bullshit.
>period."
>
>The comp chords were monstrous. Long, sweeping 7ths and 13ths that filled
>the room up with sound. Jackson and Smith just grinned at each other half
>the time they were playing. Loving it. I suspect he was comping on the
>upper manual the whole time. It was just too bright to be otherwise. The LH
>bass was tight and smooth. Sounded like a bass player should.. some really
>nice 8th note moves going into the fours. Yeah he stays on the G#,A and A#
>pedal alot, but taps them four beats per bar. When he wants sustain he'll
>push-off with the low root. Seemed to always be down around the low C
>pedal. The bass was reinforced with the whole band through the PA (biamped
>woofers with small JBLs on top). The bass was warm and just enough. Jimmy
>does alot with his pedals....much more than McDuff. He's just sneaky about
>how he gets it in. No visible mikes on the Leslies. Howdja do it Richard?
>
>Jimmy's style is somewhat post mainstream. He's totally left the
>groove-based concept of "The Sermon". Probably bored with it. They use alot
>of chromatacism and climbing chresendos. Very similar to Barbara Dennerlin
>when she's not blowing you away with her effects. This fits nicely with his
>band's style - although Lajour is a little more traditional. Smith always
>lets the other players solo first. They played for 45 min. There was more
>going on in that short time than I've heard anyone play in a long time. I
>now understand why he does this. You, as an audience, have to win his
>approval. If he's in the mood, he might play for a while. He wasn't really
>last night, but what little he gave us was something. GO SEE HIM.
>
>                "Walkin' Wolk"
>
>
>
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Richard Goodsell
Numerous Complaints Music
Complain@mindspring.com