James Oscar Smith (December 8, 1928 – February 8, 2005) was an American jazz musician who helped popularize the Hammond B-3 organ, creating a link between jazz and 1960s soul music.

Credited with helping to popularize the organ as a jazz instrument, Jimmy Smith has influenced generations of musicians from Jimmy McGriff to the Beastie Boys, who used a sample of Smith on the seminal Root Down single. "Midnight Special" was recorded in one day in 1960 for the Blue Note label.

"Back At The Chicken Shack: The Incredible Jimmy Smith" is the jazz legend’s seminal 1960 Blue Note session. Smith is joined by Stanley Turrentine, Kenny Burrell and Donald Bailey for this funky soul-jazz masterpiece. Reaching the Top Twenty on the Billboard 200, the album includes the standouts “Minor Chant”, “Back At The Chicken Shack” and much more. It is included in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

"The Sermon!" is a 1959 album by jazz organist Jimmy Smith. It was produced by the Blue Note record label. Allmusic's Lindsay Planer described the album as "a prime example of Smith and company's myriad of talents".

These 1957 sessions were the first Jimmy Smith did with horns after his recording debut the previous year. With the calibre of the top-rank musicians involved – Smith, the first to translate Bird’s innovations to the organ, altoist Donaldson, the blues-drenched Bird follower, and both Mobley and Byrd contributing some thoughtful blowing of their own on tenor and trumpet respectively - the overall results were rewarding.

The Cat is a 1964 album by Jimmy Smith. It features the sound of Smith's Hammond B-3 organ with big band arrangements by composer Lalo Schifrin. The album reached number 12 on the Billboard 200 chart. The track "The Cat" has been sampled by Pizzicato 5 "Twiggy Twiggy" and The Orb "Perpetual Dawn (Ultrabass 2)".

One of the many consistently impressive things about Jimmy Smith is his ability to evoke different moods. "I’m Movin' On" is no exception. Smith's trio moves from the irresistible, laid-back groove of the title track, through the cowboy lope of 'Hotel Happiness' and soul-drenched blues ballads like 'T'aint No Use' to the lush, romantic rendering of 'What Kind Of Fool Am I', in which Smith's organ conjures soft, floating clouds of sound. The release is distinguished by the guitar work of Grant Green, whose brilliantly measured, stylish solos perfectly augment Smith's thick, intense leads. The album was recorded in 1963, but not released on the Blue Note label until 1967.

In his years with Verve, Jimmy Smith and his jaunty jazz organ made four appearances on Billboard's hit-singles charts with his recordings of contemporary movie themes. This album, arranged by Lalo Schifrin, features selections from two film scores (including "The Cat", for which composer Schifrin won a Grammy), some big-band style orchestrations, and plenty of blues. In 1964 this release defied the boundaries of idiom, appealing to a huge audience of jazz, r&b, and pop fans. Screaming film noir horns frame Smith's jaw-dropping organ runs that practically sweat emotion.

It’s a testament to Jimmy Smith’s volcanic creativity that the Hammond B3 organ firebrand recorded not one but two soul jazz classics—Midnight Special and Back at the Chicken Shack—in a single day when he entered Van Gelder Studio on April 25, 1960 with Stanley Turrentine on tenor saxophone, Kenny Burrell on guitar, and Donald Bailey on drums. Smith had been a self-taught pianist before abandoning the instrument in 1954 in favor of the organ, renting a Philadelphia warehouse, and woodshedding for a year until he emerged with a revolutionary style that immediately caught the ear Alfred Lion.

Creed Taylor matched two of his most famous artists, Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith, on this session (Montgomery's last for Verve), and the results are incendiary – a near-ideal meeting of yin and yang. Smith comes at your throat with his big attacks and blues runs while Montgomery responds with rounder, smoother octaves and single notes that still convey much heat. They are an amazing pair, complementing each other, driving each other, using their bop and blues taproots to fuse together a sound…

Compared to his earlier Blue Note recordings, organist Jimmy Smith's outings for Verve are not as strong from a jazz standpoint. Certainly his renditions of the "Theme from Joy House," "The Cat," and the "Main Title from The Carpetbaggers" are not all that significant…