Customer Reviews

Root Down

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the one that introduced me to jazz. One of my so-called island discs. I especially love the rhythm section with bass-drums-conga and Arthur Adams funky wah-wah guitar. You have to hear this album no matter what your flavor is. I grew up listening to skate punk and classic rock and once I heard this funkified goodness i was hooked. Now I listen to guys like Grant Green, Idris Muhammad, Lonnie Smith, Melvin Sparks, The Head Hunters, and the list goes on and on and ends with FUNKADELIC oh yeah!! Eddie Hazel is the man, but thats another review. Check this out- it's good for your soul!!

I'm pretty sure that this is the only time these guys ever got together to play, and it might as well have been that way......this album is one of those sessions that seems to flow so seamlessly and make sense that it could not have happened if for the fact that five talented musicians got together and decided to "play" in the most simple sense of the word. My introduction to Root Down came by way of my love of Steely Dan - Wilton Felder and Paul Humphrey, two Steely Dan session players, are on this album. After hearing them in the infamous, carefully controlled Steely Dan studio environment, hearing them here made real the suspicion that these guys could REALLY cut loose if they were given the right opportunity. It was also great to discover Arthur Adams' guitar playing with this purchase as well. I'm never been that much of a Jimmy Smith fan in terms of jazz organ (Larry Young holds that honor - Unity is amazing) but the contrast in terms of background between the (up to this point in his career) jazzy and R&Bish Smith and the forward-looking "side men" (even going on into the future after this recording - Paul Humphrey playing with Frank Zappa) makes for a great album. It's perenially described as funky - and this it certainly is - but there are other gems to be found here than just "Root Down". "For Everyone Under the Sun" and the version of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" sound paticularly good to me, even though normally I don't listen to songs with such lyricism and melody. Again, it's the combination of the players that make the takes on the more standardish cuts on thtis album special. Also, the alternative version of "Root Down" is amazing - it's not quite as happy and polished as the first version, but it more than compensates with some viscerally funky moments as well as some fairly noisy ones that show Smith thriving in an area for which he is not known. Superimposing the excellent, warm, breathing live sound of the recording makes these performances even more of a special album.

There's one reason why Jimmy Smith is one of the greatest Organplayers of all time. A very simple reason. Pure Fun. This album demonstrates just that quality of Jimmy Smith. Seldom has a live album managed to get the atmosphere of the show accross as well as this album does. Sweat will be oozing out of your speakers.

Interesting enough this record is something of an oddity for Smith. It is the only album I know of where he's being backed by a bass player. Smith usually plays bass himself on the organ and thinks of bassplayers as being too much of a good thing. Maybe the presence of the bassplayer is what makes this album so much more alive as your average Jimmy Smith album. Although Jimmy Smith is an excellent organplayer his albums had just one weakness, uniformity. Root Down is a rare Smith item in the fact that it doesn't really repeats a formula. As a result of that it was one of his more dynamic albums in years, maybe his whole carreer.

Two tracks on the album require special attention. The title track Rootdown is a bonafide funk classic. The Beastie Boys later lifted the entire intro for their version of the song. And then there is After Hours. A fine and sexy blues that manages to move time after time.

Enjoy.

This is extremely hot stuff. Recorded in L.A. in Februrary 1972, it's looser and less traditional than a lot of Smith's landmark Blue Note material, but it still feels great. Arthur Adams' guitar is amazing and the rhythm section of Wilton Felder on bass, Paul Humphrey on drums and Buck Clarke with congas and percussion work together like three perfectly machined pistons. And at the center of it is Jimmy Smith and his Hammond organ, sounding relaxed and laid back and like he's having a lot of fun.

The fact that the title track is the source of the Beastie Boys "Root Down" is probably a big selling point for this record. And there's nothing wrong with that -- both versions are excellent music. But there's a lot of other great stuff here, particularly the friendly, upbeat "For Everyone Under the Sun," the ten minute "Slow Down Sagg," and a stretched-out cover of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together."

This isn't my favorite Smith disk -- I'm just a little more partial to "The Sermon" and "Home Cookin'" -- but it's up there with the best.

I picked this CD up after covering a Tower of Power song with a band. We did 'What Is Hip?' and I took a big organ solo in the middle. After the concert someone suggested that I explore Jimmy Smith and listen to his organ work. I bought this CD and I've been through it about 2-3 times now, and I'm diggin' it big time. It's got the intense grooves of Tower of Power, mixed with the soloing of a Herbie Hancock. The title track, 'Root Down' and 'Slow Down Sagg' are definitely the highlights of this set. The bass and drums lock into a seriously tight groove that Smith and guitarist Arthur Adams both fit themselves right into. It's definitely a CD that any funk-jazz fan/player should have.

A funky album that makes you want to throw a BBQ for all your friends! Great, fun music, unlike any album Jimmy recorded for Blue note. Wah, wah, guitars, soul jams that will enjoy even the jazz hater of the family. One fo my favourites Jimmy Smith CD's.

This is one of those soulful jazz cds that even those who don't usually like jazz will and enjoy. Jimmy Smith and co. make their instruments smoke during a live date in Feb. 1972 in LA. The title cut "Root Down and Get It" (whatever that means) is the kind of groove that will make you bob your head like Wayne and Garth to "Bohemian Rhapsody" in "Wayne's World." "For Everyone Under the Sun" is the kind of mellow tune that you can imagine a nighttime radio DJ using as a sign-off theme on a pleasant evening. The verson of "Let's Stay Together" does AL Green proud. "After Hours" has nice harmonica work, and the "Sagg" tunes are closer to the avant-garde stuff that harcore jazz fans like. That aside, it's a great Cd to introduce non harcore-jazz fans to Jimmy Smith.

Root Down would be one of Jimmy Smith's last albums for Verve before dropping off the major music scene in the U.S., recording for his own label Mojo, and often touring Europe with Kenny Burrell. The title track became famous from the Beastie Boys' sampling of it, and the raw funkiness caused a clamor for this album's reissue. Smith is assisted here by guitarist Arthur Adams, ex Jazz Crusader Wilton Felder on bass, Paul Humphries on drums and Buck Clarke, veteran percussionist. Some of the albums best tracks are the manic funk of "Sagg Shootin His Arrows", "Slow Down Sagg" and the alternate take of "Root Down", all with fine contributions from Adams and Jimmy's self indulgent solos. Also suprising is the effective take on Al Green's otherwise surupy hit "Let's Stay Together". An interesting side note, 4 of the albums original 6 tracks are released here in their complete unedited form for the first time. Recommended for Jimmy Smith completists and groove music fans. There virtually are no straight ahead performances here which would turn off purists.

First - "Root Down" is the hottest and rawest down-to-earth funkadelic live album recorded by Jimmy Smith and with his most unusual live group in the '70's. Secondly - he never did a follow up album with the concept. Too bad! Recorded live in Los Angeles in February 1972, the group of young musicians rooted in modern progressive rock/jazzrock and funk seems to have no respect for the organ master is and pushes him beyond normal limits. With Wilton Felder (yes, the man from Crusaders) plays his funky elbass, some guitar distortion/wah-wah from Artur Adams and funky drumming from Paul Humphrey, the band sounds astonishing modern in the acid jazz vein, even for today's standards. Smith kicks off laying down blues drenched organ grooves that truly cook on his originals like "Sagg Shootin' His Arrow", "Root Down" and Slow Down Sagg". The too often played "After Hours" sounds fresh and new adding Steve Williams on harmonica. The reissue is even greater than the original album since Verve have restored original tracks to their full and unedited length...great work from Verve!

I am a big fan of jazz organ and vibes. Milt Jackson is the Wizard of the Vibes but the Incredible Jimmy Smith is the Master of the Organ. He is unbelievable. I own about 18 of his albums so far and they are all awesome but I gotta tell man, this is one of the best.

I love the Beastie Boys album, "The In Sound From Way Out!" and that is why I bought "Root Down". I know, that is backwards, but whatever, I now own the album and will cherish it forever.

All you jazz only fans need to buy that Beasties Boys album, you will not be sorry you did!