My mom’s friend Mrs. Rosenberg had a Hammond organ. It’s such a great instrument that even 9 year old me sounded good on it. I was a bad keyboard player, y’all. But that organ made me a decent one. I went to Casa Rosenberg one day to noodle on the organ and she asked me if I liked Jimmy Smith. I had never heard of him.
It was sometime in December of 1966. Later that week, Mrs. R brought me a Chrismukkah present: Christmas Cookin‘ by Jimmy Smith. I dug it and still do.
In its first release the album had a different cover and title: Christmas ’64. I’m showing the cover of Christmas Cookin’ first because it’s a better album package. What’s not to love about Santa Jimmy? It also pleases me to remember who gave me the album so many years ago. Thanks, Mrs. R.
It’s cover time:
The cover of Christmas ’64 has an abstract thing going on that I dig and the Verve ornament has, well, verve.
Here’s the whole damn album via the YouTube:
