JAZZ REVIEW : Smith Pulls All the Stops Out

Jimmy Smith, the head honcho of the Hammond, the old man river of the organ, has been blowing audiences away since he first hit New York with his trio in 1956. On a rare visit to Los Angeles (he now lives in Nashville), he opened Thursday at the Loa, where he will close on Sunday.

Now as then, he is a thunderclap of energy. What he does now he was doing before rock; he was avant-fusion, avant-synthesizers, avant-Coltrane. Nothing has changed except that he’s doing it better than ever, with massive clouds of sound that threaten to loosen the Loa’s ceiling.

What matters, though, is not the volume per se; it is his flow of ideas. He conjures up every tone color in the sonic rainbow, seemingly playing more notes in a chord than there are in the scale. Sure, that is impossible, but don’t tell Jimmy Smith.

His left foot vigorously working the chromatic pedals, he leaves both hands free to create his harmonic miracles. Some organists cheat by using their left hands for the bass lines; others hire bass players, but Smith has the Hammond B-3 totally under his manual and pedal command. This seems to be an old model, however, and subject to occasional distortion.

Wandering unpredictably from blues to “Mood Indigo” or “Yesterdays” and back to another blues, Smith kept his men constantly on the alert, trying to figure out what he would do next. Guitarist Terry Evans was never fazed, soloing fluently, and even singing agreeably on “Georgia.”

Herman Riley, who played so brilliantly on a recent date with his own band, was off-form with his soprano sax, too busy (endless cadenzas) and suffering from intonation problems. When Smith kiddingly began putting money on the organ, it was not clear whether he was trying to persuade him to continue or stop. But later, on tenor sax and flute, Riley redeemed himself.

Frank Wilson completed the group on drums, taking the mandatory solo on the last tune; but Smith was back at the controls for a grandioso finale, reminding us that he is one of the great survivors, destined to outlive every fad and trend, up to and beyond the end of this turbulent musical century.