Jimmy Smith recorded ‘Bucket’ with his regular trio of Don Bailey (drums) and Quentin Warren (guitar) on 1st February 1963 and it was released in 1966. It may not be one of Smith’s strongest Blue Note albums (that accolade would go to the likes of ‘Midnight Special’, Back At The Chicken Shack’ or ‘The Sermon’), but it still has plenty of highlights. The opener, the title track, is a fast swinging piece of Hammond organ Jazz. W C Handy’s ‘Careless love’ slows the tempo down to walking pace and is a gritty lament. The second Smith composition ‘3 for 4’ has a breeze like quality and is the type of easy on the ear groove that Smith loved when not putting the pedal to the metal. Duke Ellington’s ‘Just Squeeze Me’ is pleasant if somewhat sedate. Smith’s ‘Sassy Mae’ is ‘grits n gravy’ track that is soaked in the Blues. Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s Jazz standard ‘Come Rain Or Come Shine’ is even more bluesy. Smith takes an under-stated approach to usually rousing traditional folk song ‘John Brown’s Body’. It is a soulful end to solid Jimmy Smith album.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.