When Jimmy Smith at the Organ, V. 3 was released, it was this newcomer’s third release in four months. This outpouring of music occurred during a series of marathon sessions resulting in the CDs Jimmy Smith at the Organ, volumes 1,2, and 3. This third was recorded during consecutive days, June 17 and 18, 1956. Needless to say, Smith provided a high level of output in his initial years behind the organ, and he continued to be prodigious throughout his lengthy career.

How amazing, then, to consider that Smith converted from piano to organ in 1955 after hearing Wild Bill Davis. He spent several months in ’55 teaching himself the instrument and exploring its unrealized potential. "When finally I got enough money for a down payment on my own organ I put it in a warehouse and I took a big sheet of paper and drew a floor plan of the pedals,” he told Leonard Feather. “Anytime I wanted to gauge the spaces and where to drop my foot down on which pedal, I'd look at the chart. I'd eat breakfast and then take my lunch to the warehouse with me and stay there until I was satisfied that I'd done what I needed to for that day."

In the summer of ’55 he began playing live in Atlantic City, and by fall of that year he had a regular trio and was being managed by Babs Gonzales, who commented, upon hearing Smith for the first time: “What I heard was a cat playing forty choruses of Georgia Brown in pure 'Nashua' tempo and never repeating. I heard futuristic, stratospheric sounds that were never before explored on the organ." Following gigs in New York at Small’s Paradise in Harlem and uptown at Café Bohemia, Smith was signed by Blue Note’s Alfred Lion, who wasted no time in recording the organ sensation.

At the Organ V. 3 shows all of the revolutionary qualities that Smith was applying to the organ, but it also allows the listener to hear some of Smith’s influences more readily than a lot of his later recordings. One can hear traces of the pioneering approach to jazz organ of Fats Waller in Smith’s rendition of “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” or of Errol Garner, a favorite pianist of Smith’s, on “I Cover the Waterfront.” He demonstrates the pioneering use of single-note right hand lines to imitate the horn players of the day on “Willow Weep for Me” and “Well, You Needn’t.” He even offers some futuristic-sounding organ effects that surely must have blown listeners’ minds back in ’56 on “Judo Mambo” and “Slightly Monkish.” More important, for those who consider Smith to be primarily a blues-influenced player whose output is comprised largely of greasy blues/proto-funk and R&B influences, Smith can be heard here as the premiere jazz player and improviser that he is. He could play Monk well, and he could compose his own numbers that were as innovative as what almost any jazz musician you could name—witness “Judo Mambo” and “Slightly Monkish.”

Accompanying Smith on At the Organ is a rock-solid trio comprised of guitarist Thornel Schwartz and drummer Donald Bailey. Schwartz, who came from Philadelphia, had played with singer Freddy Cole and counted among his influences Tal Farlow and Kenny Burrell. Bailey, who comes from a musical family, is another Philadelphia native and self-taught. His drumming style was influenced by Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, and Art Blakey. Bailey continued to work with Smith on many subsequent Blue Note recordings, while Schwartz later recorded with organist Larry Young.

It’s hard to recommend a starting place for listeners new to Smith and/or jazz organ, but if one is a serious student of the instrument, one could hardly do better than to start with the At the Organ V. 1-3 series. These performances show what Smith was doing when he emerged as a major jazz artist and presage all of his later work. Those expecting a soul/blues workout in the style of The Sermon may be a little disappointed, but others will most certainly be well satisfied.