According to music lore, there exists a race of people who call themselves "jazz purists" (I've read about these people in many music magazines, though I have yet to meet one in person). Anyway, the belief central to jazz purist culture is that change is inherently bad, and adherence to a strict musical formula takes precedence over innovation and creativity. These jazz purists have never been able to dig James Oscar Smith or the superfly sound of his cool-jerkin', soul-shufflin' Hammond B-3 organ. The purists always wanted Jimmy to stick to tried and true jazz snobbery - Dixieland vamps and pre-bop swing - but Jimmy, man... Jimmy Smith cannot be contained. Having virtually invented soul-jazz, that misunderstood jive-talkin' cousin of hard bop and funk fusion, Jimmy was unstoppable from the time he recorded his first album in 1956, purists be damned. Here we find Jimmy at the top of his game: 1972, with a decade and a half's worth of searing R&B-flavored jazz ecstasy behind him, Jimmy rocks a live set of the hottest soul-jazz ever recorded: "Sagg Shootin' His Arrow" crackles with righteous energy, "After Hours" burns slowly, augmented by the electrifying guitar work of Arthur Adams, and the stone-cold, solid-cold classic "Root Down (And Get It)" brings down the muthafuckin' house.
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