''Damn!'' is a 1996 album by the American jazz organist Jimmy Smith. The album was Smith's first album for

Verve Records Verve Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Founded in 1956 by Norman Granz, the label is home to the world's largest jazz catalogue, which includes recordings by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simon ...

for over twenty years.Discogs
accessed March 20, 2015 ''Damn!'' peaked at number 13 on the ''Billboard'' Top Jazz Album charts. It's the last recording session of the drummer Art Taylor, a few weeks before his death.

Reception

The

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

review by Steve Leggett awarded the album four stars with Leggett writing that "The whole album, start to finish, works a wonderful groove, but versions here of James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man," and Charlie Parker's "Scrapple from the Apple" are particularly strong..''Damn!'' is right up there with his best work, full of a joyous energy, and it sparked a resurgence of sorts for Smith."

Track listing

# "

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is a song written and recorded by James Brown. Released as a two-part single in 1965, it was Brown's first song to reach the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 Top Ten, peaking at number eight, and was a number-one R&B hit, top ...

" ( James Brown) – 7:30 # " Sister Sadie" (

Horace Silver Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sc ...

) – 6:57 # "

Woody 'n' You "Woody 'n' You", is a 1942 jazz standard written by Dizzy Gillespie as an homage to Woody Herman. It was one of three arrangements Gillespie made for Herman's big band, although it was not used at the time; the other two were "Swing Shift" and "Do ...

" ( Dizzy Gillespie) – 6:50 # "The One Before This" ( Gene Ammons) – 6:53 # " Watermelon Man" ( Herbie Hancock) – 8:43 # "

Dat Dere "Dat Dere" is a jazz song written by Bobby Timmons that was recorded in 1960. Lyrics were written later by Oscar Brown, Jr. Recording and lyrics The song was first recorded by Bobby Timmons in his debut album '' This Here Is Bobby Timmons'' (J ...

" (

Bobby Timmons Robert Henry Timmons (December 19, 1935 – March 1, 1974) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He was a sideman in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for two periods (July 1958 to September 1959; February 1960 to June 1961), between which he wa ...

) – 7:30 # "

Scrapple from the Apple "Scrapple from the Apple" is a bebop composition by Charlie Parker written in 1947, commonly recognized today as a jazz standard, written in F major. The song borrows its chord progression from " Honeysuckle Rose", a common practice for Parker, as ...

" (

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

) – 5:25 # " Hi-Fly" (

Randy Weston Randolph Edward "Randy" Weston (April 6, 1926 – September 1, 2018) was an American jazz pianist and composer whose creativity was inspired by his ancestral African connection. Weston's piano style owed much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious ...

) – 6:35 # "A L Mode" (

Curtis Fuller Curtis DuBois Fuller (December 15, 1932May 8, 2021) was an American jazz trombonist. He was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributed to many classic jazz recordings. Early life Fuller was born in Detroit on December 15, 1932. ...

) – 6:25

Personnel

Musicians * Jimmy Smith – organ, arranger * Roy Hargrove – flugelhorn,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

Nicholas Payton Nicholas Payton (born September 26, 1973) is an American trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist. A Grammy Award winner, he is from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is also a prolific and provocative writer who comments on a multitude of subjects, inc ...

–

Bernard "Pretty" Purdie Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie (born June 11, 1939) is an American drummer, and an influential R&B, soul and funk musician. He is known for his precise musical time keeping and his signature use of triplets against a half-time backbeat: the "Purdie ...

- drums *

Abraham Burton Abraham Augustus Burton Jr. (born March 17, 1971) is an American saxophonist and bandleader. Biography Burton was born in New York City on March 17, 1971, and was raised in Greenwich Village. He studied at the Hartt School from 1989 to 1993, gradu ...

– alto saxophone * Mark Turner–

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

(track 2) * Tim Warfield– tenor saxophone (tracks 2, 4, 5, 9) *

Ron Blake Ron Blake (born September 7, 1965) is an American saxophonist, band leader, composer, and music educator. Born in the Virgin Islands, he attended Northwestern University, and now lives in New York City. Blake began studying guitar at 8 and tur ...

– tenor saxophone (tracks 4, 5, 9), *

Mark Whitfield Mark Whitfield (born October 6, 1966) is an American jazz guitarist. Life and career Whitfield was born in Lindenhurst, New York. He has worked with Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith, Courtney Pine, Nicholas Payton, and Chris Botti. In 2000, Whitfield ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

Christian McBride Christian McBride (born May 31, 1972) is an American jazz bassist, composer and arranger. He has appeared on more than 300 recordings as a sideman, and is an eight-time Grammy Award winner. McBride has performed and recorded with a number of j ...

–

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

* Art Taylor – drums Production * Jim Anderson – engineer, mixing * Lola Smith – executive producer * Allan Tucker – mastering * Chris Albert – mixing assistant * Jimmy Katz – photography * Camille Tominaro – production coordination * David Lau – art direction, design * Rudi Mallasch – assistant coordinator * Scott Austin – assistant engineer * Nate Herr – coordination * Richard Seidel – producer * Don Sickler

References

{{Authority control 1995 albums Jimmy Smith (musician) albums Verve Records albums