One of my favorite jazz artist compilation albums from the great Jimmy Smith on the Hammond B3 organ. He was a link between 60's jazz and soul music. He could play that amazing 60's funky jazz style and then turn around and play the top 40 pop songs. I really liked both versions of Smith.
He came out of the Philadelphia jazz and soul clubs and was immediately signed to the Blue Note label in 1956 where he recorded some classic albums before signing with Verve in 1962 and made albums with other artists such as Wes 
Montgomery, George Benson, Kenny Burrell and many others. I've always liked his soul jazz music but also when he would apply his mighty organ to a pop classic such as Ode To Billie Joe and Funky Broadway.
I started listening to a lot of jazz in the mid to late 70's and greatly expanded my jazz collection of records. I was also listening to the WRTI radio station from Temple University that regularly played jazz and discussed the music and the artists they featured. I was mostly listening and buying hard bop and fusion at that time. It would be many years later that I discovered my love of 1960's soul jazz. It was Jimmy Smith that opened that up to me especially when I heard some of his records he made with Wes Montgomery. Then I was all about the jazz guitarists and organists playing their funky grooves.
In addition to Jimmy Smith I also discovered the soul jazz organist Shirley Scott, Jimmy McGriff, Brother Jack McDuff, Richard 'Groove' Holmes,
Some other Jimmy Smith albums in my collection:
- Back at the Chicken Shack, 1960
- Best of Jimmy Smith: The Blue Note Years, 1988
- Bluesmith, 1972
- A Date with Jimmy Smith, 1957
- Jimmy Smith Retrospective, 2004
- Walk On The Wild Side: The Verve Years, 1973
He is also included in many of the jazz compilations in my collection and I've used his music on dozens of mixes over the years.
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