During the course of various dealings with Mark Trayner of Vintage Hammond Hire (Scotland), I received an invite to "tech" with him at the Glasgow International Jazz Festival. As this could possibly be one of the last times that Jimmy Smith is likely to play in Europe, I jumped at the chance.

The Old Fruitmarket is exactly what its title says and is right in the centre of Glasgow city. The building is basically a covered marketplace with a cobbled roadway through the centre, an amazing place full of character.

The B3 and 2 147’s were set up and working on the stage by the middle of the morning and we were told that Jimmy was coming down to the venue to check out the organ. He arrived, said a few words to Mark and sat down at the B3. He played a few licks and then pronounced that the Leslies were shot, apparently the 15" speakers that face upwards (his words not mine) were shot. In my limited experience, if you play a two handed chord plus pedal with the expression pedal to the floor and the Leslie amp turned up fairly high you get distortion and this rig was no exception.

Anyone who knows Mark and has seen this rental equipment will testify that it is in absolutely excellent condition, in fact Buddy Guy’s guitarist commented that the B3 looked like new, so what JS was complaining about is anyone's guess, although Mark seemed to think that he had gotten off lightly.

Right on time the Jimmy Smith Quartet took to the stage. Well, the playing more than made up for any strange behaviour during the day. Jimmy had a couple of minor tantrums during the early part of the show. He complained about the lighting being too bright so he had the lighting guys bring the lights right down. I cant remember the exact quotation but it was along the lines of "I don’t need no lights, I can play in the dark". A while later the lighting level went up a bit. Jimmy then stopped the band and again said something like "I said turn them lights down, if you don’t turn them lights down I gonna get off of this damn organ" . So the lights went right down again. Jimmy then spotted someone with a video camera and again stopped the band and said something like "If you wanna video my ass, then you gotta pay my ass." That minor unpleasantness over, he then proceeded with an excellent set with the audience’s participation in "8 Counts For Rita" (one of my personal favourites). There were two stage exits by Jimmy, one while the guitarist played 3 numbers solo and another for 3 drum solo numbers. I guess these absences were about 10 – 15 minutes each. The show ended with tumultuous applause and then Jimmy and the band returned for an encore. The encore numbers being "Chicken Shack" and "Mojo" which had most of the crowd on its feet and a large number dancing at the front.

After returning the B3 to its flight case and packing it and the Leslies away at the side of the stage, Mark and I went backstage. Jimmy wasn’t being very communicative, although Mark had a few words and I believe that Jimmy pronounced the B3 as being "OK" so I guess that’s about as big a compliment as you can get.

Overall, an excellent performance and well worth the travelling and hard work to see one of the "greats" in action

Words and pictures by John Harris

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