B-3 organ master Johnny "Hammond" Smith was among the most prolific of all Prestige recording artists. The company issued 20 albums under the Louisville-born musician's name between 1959 and 1971, in addition to dates as a sideman with Oliver Nelson, Gene Ammons, and others. Smith's Prestige sessions were always a winning blend of blues, bop, and ballads, but these two from 1969 find funk added to the recipe courtesy of boogaloo drum king Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. The stinging grooves contained herein are classics of acid jazz that portend the crossover direction Smith would take at Kudu Records during the Seventies, when he became known simply as Johnny Hammond.

with Rusty Bryant, Leo Johnson, Virgil Jones, Wally Richardson, Bob Bushnell, Jimmy Lewis, Bernard Purdie