Jimmy Smith - Quotes

I played with Sam Lay, Jimmy Reed, Big Walter Horton, Big Moose Walker, and all those guys. ---->>>

My first recording, a guy came down to Philadelphia and heard me play and he introduced me to Alfred Lion. ---->>>

My boys told me they'd rather play than practice. ---->>>

I played with Eddie Taylor's son, Tim Taylor and Carey Bells son Lurie Bell. ---->>>

Michael Coleman, now that was a boy that taught me some stuff too. ---->>>

My mom would have liked it that I patterned myself more after Jimmy Reed. ---->>>

People like the idea of the trio and so I did mostly trio. ---->>>

Yeah, you know everybody has somebody that they patterned themselves after. ---->>>

And then when I found my sound, it took me two and a half weeks to find my sound and when I did I pulled out all the stops, all the stops I could find. ---->>>

All the colleges I played, most of the colleges, they were white. ---->>>

I always had the facial hair so I looked older than I was. ---->>>

I did my first recording. It was called The Champ. ---->>>

I just came from Aspen, Colorado and they had fifteen kids I played for and they all played horns. ---->>>

Ninety-five percent of my audience was white. ---->>>

Three months. I was playing the organ for three months. It was a challenge for me in the beginning. ---->>>

I heard Mr. Wild Bill Davis. I heard him play in 1930 and he told me that it would take me fifteen years just to learn the pedals, the pedals of the organ and I got mad. ---->>>