Jimmy Smith - Softly As A Summer Breeze (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition)

Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition 180g Black Vinyl

This is the Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition of Softly As A Summer Breeze. The cut is stereo and all-analog. Kevin Gray mastered it from the original master tapes, and it is pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at Optimal. It belongs to the 2026 run of the Classic Vinyl Series, whose titles were chosen by Cem Kurosman. Its street date of August 21, 2026 is shared with Grant Green's Street Of Dreams.

Jimmy Smith recorded the album at Manhattan Towers over two days in the last week of February 1958. Those sessions also produced House Party and The Sermon, and Blue Note held this material back until 1965. Alfred Lion produced the original sessions.

Smith plays Hammond B3 organ with two different trios. Kenny Burrell on guitar and Philly Joe Jones on drums join him for the first four tracks, through Sometimes I'm Happy. Eddie McFadden on guitar and Donald Bailey on drums play on Someone To Watch Over Me and Home Cookin'. Besides the standards, the album has Thelonious Monk's Hackensack and Smith's own Home Cookin', which Blue Note's notes call One For Philly Joe.

Tracklist

Side A

1. These Foolish Things
2. Hackensack
3. It Could Happen To You

Side B

1. Sometimes I'm Happy
2. Someone To Watch Over Me
3. Home Cookin'