Title: The Incredible Jimmy Smith – Monster
Artist(s): Organ – Jimmy Smith / Arranged By, Conductor – Oliver Nelson
Bass – Richard Davis
Bass Clarinet, Flute [Alto, Soprano] – Harvey Estrin
Bass Clarinet, Flute [Alto], Baritone Saxophone – Danny Banks
Clarinet, Alto Saxophone – Phil Woods
Clarinet, Flute, Alto Saxophone – George Dorsey
Clarinet, Flute, Oboe, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Jerome Richardson
Clarinet, Flute, Soprano Saxophone – Ray Beckenstein
Clarinet, Flute, Tenor Saxophone – Robert Ashton
Drums – Grady Tate
Recording Info: Transferred from a 4-track tape
Recorded by Verve
Recorded At – Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Date of Recording: 1965
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Jimmy smith-monster
Another great JS Album, especially in hidef version

Theme Music
I had this album years ago and loved it. So glad to fine a quality digital version. A little different than the bluesy Jimmy Smith, with exception of St. James Infirmary. Thank you for an excellent recording of this classic Jimmy Smith album.
The Incredible Jimmy Smith – Monster
This place is great! I have been trying to get this on CD for ages! great job, Fast Shipping! will do business again!
Incredible Jimmy Smith!
As a kid growing up in the 60's, in my early teens I really got into Jimmy Smith and had -still have in fact- quite a few of his albums on vinyl. Trouble is, after many years of being played on record players which used the equivalent of 6" nails to provide the stylus (Well, I exaggerate, but only a little) they are pretty much unplayable. Really I should junk them I suppose - not least because I have CD versions (and/or FLAC) versions of most of them . The Monster album was a notable exception. I just found it impossible to find this on CD or as a download (other than as a low bit rate MP3 of dubious quaility and perhaps legality too) from sources I could access. I'd forgotten all about it until recently. FLAC downloads seem to have become more common so I had another root around for this album and -Bingo!- I found the High Definition Tape Transfer site (HDTT). Would they let me download I'm not in the USA (I'm in England, in West Yorkshire to be precise) and this sometimes seems to be an issue. Yes they would. The price seemed very reasonable, so yes I did. I've got a reasonably fast optical fibre Internet connection - 200Mb/s - even so the download took about 30 mins. This was a a little infuriating but not a problem of HDTT's making. More infuriating was the need to reconfigure my software as it was set up to play only 16 bit FLAC - this being entirely my fault. After an hour or so from deciding to make the purchase I was ready to play the album. I hadn't heard it for almost 50years and it sounded just as great as I remembered. Indeed, bearing in mind the equipment I had in those days, it sounded much better than I remembered. As I recollected things, this was not IMHO one of Jimmy Smith's best albums. What made it memorable for me was the Oliver Nelson's Orchestra and Nelson's arrangements - the standout track for me being St James Infirmary. After listening to the new acquisition several times, I haven't changed my mind and, if anything, the quality of this recording only reinforces this opinion. I'm really pleased with my purchase. The recording quality is impressive and I look forward to buying more downloads.
A long time due reissue with the best of Jimmy Smith and Oliver Nelson collaboration.
For reasons that I am still not aware of, the Verve Music Group never released this recording in a remastered version to CD. Back in the days of the Verve Forum many requests were made by members, and then they decided to create a series called “Verve By Request”, which was great, issued many important titles and all, but “Monster” was never considered, despite of all the pleads. It is quite possible that the original masters were lost or misplaced, thus the reluctance of Verve’s team to commit it to CD. However, this is probably one of the best collaborations between Jimmy Smith and Oliver Nelson, who experimented new arrangements for the woodwinds successfully. It may seem a bit odd to jazz fans the inclusion of TV themes such as “Bewitched” or “Theme From The Munsters”, but it all boils down to the inventive arrangements and Jimmy Smith improvisational skills. Jimmy Smith made a series of albums for Blue Note. His work for producer Creed Taylor on Verve Records starts with the successful album “Bashing, with Oliver Nelson. “Monster” was recorded some years later. Its absence in the digital medium has been appalling, until now, when HDTT managed to use a commercial 4-track tape. Granted, ideally the original master should have been used to recover the full musical gamut as recorded by Rudy Van Gelder, but having the tape in a hi-def digital format here is, considering the circumstances, a breakthrough!
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