Jimmy Smith Quotes

My boys told me they'd rather play than practice.

My mom would have liked it that I patterned myself more after Jimmy Reed.

Michael Coleman, now that was a boy that taught me some stuff too.

I did my first recording. It was called The Champ.

My first recording, a guy came down to Philadelphia and heard me play and he introduced me to Alfred Lion.

I played with Sam Lay, Jimmy Reed, Big Walter Horton, Big Moose Walker, and all those guys.

Yeah, you know everybody has somebody that they patterned themselves after.

People like the idea of the trio and so I did mostly trio.

Ninety-five percent of my audience was white.

Three months. I was playing the organ for three months. It was a challenge for me in the beginning.

I always had the facial hair so I looked older than I was.

I played with Eddie Taylor's son, Tim Taylor and Carey Bells son Lurie Bell.

I just came from Aspen, Colorado and they had fifteen kids I played for and they all played horns.

All the colleges I played, most of the colleges, they were white.