A New Sound, A New Star Volume 2

Five weeks after his first session, Jimmy Smith was back. Babs Gonzales wrote one set of notes for both volumes, and by the time they went to press Smith had work lined up in New York, at Smalls' Uptown and the Café Bohemia. Gonzales says the back room at Small's Paradise filled every night with musicians who came to hear him.

The modern musicians are definitely in Jimmy's corner.

Babs Gonzales, original liner notes

The date was Tuesday, March 27, 1956, at Rudy Van Gelder's in Hackensack, with Alfred Lion producing. Thornel Schwartz was on guitar again. On drums was Donald Bailey, whom Gonzales calls Smith's regular drummer, in place of Bay Perry. Eight tunes were cut and seven made the record; "Gone With the Wind" stayed on the shelf until a CD.

Side one opens with "The Champ," the Dizzy Gillespie tune Smith had tried and set aside in February. This time it took more than eight minutes, and it gave the record its other title. Then come Smith's "Bayou" and "Deep Purple." Side two opens with "Moonlight in Vermont" and closes with three more of Smith's own: "Ready 'n Able," "Turquoise" and "Bubbis." Nat Hentoff, reviewing the first volume, heard "Bayou" and "Turquoise" as attractive but too lush.

Down Beat got to this record first, in June 1956, two months before Volume 1. Hentoff gave it three and a half stars. He heard bop intensity at fast tempos and found the ballads heavy, the stuff of movie scores. He still saw where this was going:

Potentially, Smith could be the first important modern jazz organist.

Nat Hentoff, Down Beat, June 27, 1956

Billboard, in May, liked the clean phrasing and said Smith was the first to treat the organ for its colors, not only its rhythm.

The sleeve is Reid Miles's design with a Francis Wolff photograph, as Wikipedia credits it.

The same trio was back at Van Gelder's in June for a third volume, and in August Blue Note recorded them live at Club Baby Grand. Both of these first records were later put on one CD with The Incredible Jimmy Smith at the Organ.