Johnny 'Hammond' Smith - Look Out!

Johnny 'Hammond' Smith with Seldon Powell - [Soul Street] Look Out! - New Jazz 8288 - Prestige Pressing, Blue Trident Label, Mono

Johnny 'Hammond' Smith - Organ
Seldon Powell - Tenor Sax
Clement Wells - Vibes
Wally Richardson - Guitar
Leo Stevens - Drums

Recorded - [not listed on sleeve, but according to major Prestige discographies: January 22, 1962, Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ]

Supervision - Esmond Edwards
Recording - Rudy Van Gelder
Cover Design/Photo - Don Schiltten

Released - c. November 1963?

After a bit of a break, I'm back with a nice Prestige/New Jazz rarity by soul jazz organist Johnny 'Hammond' Smith! I'm not sure of the original providence of this pressing, looks to be a later Prestige pressing instead of an original New Jazz purple copy (such distinctions might mean something to you collectors). Label also has an extra additional title; "Soul Street" which might have been its original title. In any event, this side as far as I can tell has escaped release on CD. I'm slowly inching towards my goal of having a personal collection (vinyl + digital) of the complete Prestige Soul jazz discography!

This is quite an eclectic side, with an interesting combination of instrumentation (sax, vibes, guitar) anchored by 3 Smith originals on Side A, that doesn't fall prey to the typical Prestige soul jazz cliches...Very refreshing and not what I expected! Perhaps this eclecticism is due to the nice production of a pre-Argo Esmond Edwards and a nice Rudy Van Gelder recording as well. This has nice fidelity off the beautiful mint mono vinyl. A true buried treasure!

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