Jimmy Smith

Jimmy Smith's Verve LPs were big sellers during the 1960s. The formula was this: a big band would play a song's melody and Smith would come in at the bridge, going directly into a brilliant organ solo. This 1968 set changes things up by often having Smith come in at the same time as Oliver Nelson's big band and string orchestra. "Mission Impossible" is fun, the bossa nova "Gentle Rain" is beautiful, and "Refractions" is an Oliver Nelson penned post-bopper that features one of Smith's most influential solos of the period.