On this day in 1957, Jimmy Smith began recording a series of sessions that would be compiled as The Sermon!
The first song recorded was “J.O.S.” (for “Jimmy Oscar Smith”). It’s a fast-moving 32-bar blues buoyed by Smith’s deft pedalwork and Donald “Duck” Bailey’s drumming. Though Bailey would be replaced by the unstoppable juggernaut Art Blakey in subsequent sessions, he’s a great fit for this setting. Kenny Burrell is magnificent on the guitar, but the real shock is the trumpet work of Lee Morgan, who was 19 years old at the time of the recording.
Morgan is brash and cocky, and what’s more, he’s got the talent to get away with it. At 6:24, you can hear his solo running well past the chorus. Smith stabs a dissonant chord to signal him, and Morgan’s either blowing too hard to notice or he feels like mischief. In either case, it’s a dose of humor that fits right in with the informal feeling of the record.