Jimmy Smith

Jimmy Smith (born December 8, 1928, Norristown, Pennsylvania, U.S.—died February 8, 2005, Scottsdale, Arizona) was an American musician who integrated the electric organ into jazz, thereby inventing the soul-jazz idiom, which became popular in the 1950s and ’60s. Smith grew up outside of Philadelphia. He learned to play piano from his parents and began performing with his father in a dance troupe at an early age. After serving in the navy he studied bass and...