Damn! (Jimmy Smith album)

Damn! is a 1996 album by the American jazz organist Jimmy Smith. The album was Smith's first album for Verve Records for over twenty years.^[1][2]

Damn!
Studio album by Jimmy Smith
Released	1995
Recorded	January 24–25, 1995
Genre	Jazz
Length	62:48
Label	Verve
Producer	Richard Seidel Don Sickler
Jimmy Smith chronology
Sum Serious Blues' (1993) Damn! (1995) Angel Eyes: Ballads & Slow Jams (1996)

Damn! peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Top Jazz Album charts.^[3]

It's the last recording session of the drummer Art Taylor, a few weeks before his death.^[4]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[1]

The AllMusic 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."^[1]

Track listing

1. "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (James Brown) – 7:30
2. "Sister Sadie" (Horace Silver) – 6:57
3. "Woody 'n' You" (Dizzy Gillespie) – 6:50
4. "The One Before This" (Gene Ammons) – 6:53
5. "Watermelon Man" (Herbie Hancock) – 8:43
6. "Dat Dere" (Bobby Timmons) – 7:30
7. "Scrapple from the Apple" (Charlie Parker) – 5:25
8. "Hi-Fly" (Randy Weston) – 6:35
9. "A L Mode" (Curtis Fuller) – 6:25

Personnel

Musicians

• Jimmy Smith – organ, arranger
• Roy Hargrove – flugelhorn, trumpet
• Nicholas Payton – trumpet
• Bernard "Pretty" Purdie - drums
• Abraham Burton – alto saxophone

• Mark Turner– tenor saxophone (track 2)
• Tim Warfield– tenor saxophone (tracks 2, 4, 5, 9)
• Ron Blake – tenor saxophone (tracks 4, 5, 9),
• Mark Whitfield – guitar
• Christian McBride – double bass
• 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

1. "Damn!". Allmusic. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
2. Discogs accessed March 20, 2015
3. Damn! – Awards at AllMusic
4. "Art Taylor Biography". All About Jazz. Retrieved October 7, 2021.