Prayer Meetin' in Bloomington, MN

Playing piano-style single-note lines on his Hammond B-3 organ,
Jimmy Smith
revolutionized the use of the instrument in a
jazz
combo setting in the mid-'50s and early '60s, and arguably his best albums for
Blue Note
during this period were the ones he did with tenor sax player
Stanley Turrentine
. Recorded on February 8, 1963, at
Van Gelder Studio
in New Jersey, and featuring
Quentin Warren
on guitar and
Donald Bailey
on drums in addition to
Smith
and
Turrentine
,
Prayer Meetin'
is a delight from start to finish. Forming a perfect closure to
's trio of albums with
(
Midnight Special
Back at the Chicken Shack
were both released in 1960),
was the last of four albums
recorded in a week to finish off his
contract before leaving for
Verve
. The
blues
roots are obvious here, and the
-penned title track might even be called
-
gospel
, but the single most striking cut is a version of
Ivory Joe Hunter
's
"I Almost Lost My Mind,"
with both
building wonderful solos, suggesting new pathways for organ and sax as complementary instruments. ~ Steve Leggett