Hammond Meets Floyd Smith's Guitar Fire
Floyd Smith's guitar cuts through Hammond's organ with a sharpness that keeps everything lean and urgent.
What makes The Stinger (1965) distinctive is Floyd Smith's guitar. This isn't a Hammond organ record that happens to have guitar on it — Smith's tone and phrasing drive the character of nearly every track, sparring with Johnny "Hammond" Smith's organ lines rather than padding them out. Smith plays with a cutting, almost abrasive edge, full of bent notes and quick attacks that contrast sharply with the organ's smoothness. That tension between the two instruments is where the album lives.
Houston Person on tenor saxophone adds warmth and swing, especially on the slower tracks, while Earl Edwards rounds out the horn section. But it's Smith's guitar that keeps things from settling into the kind of easy, late-night soul-jazz that Hammond was known for. The record stays alert, a little rougher than you might expect. Hammond was established by this point, playing a style that worked well in cocktail lounges and after-hours clubs, but Smith refuses to let it become background music.
This sits squarely in Hammond's working repertoire — solid organ-combo jazz, nothing experimental. Start with this if you want to hear how guitar can reshape an organist's sound, or if you're curious about Hammond's group recordings outside his better-known Blue Note sessions. It's a working band playing with purpose, and Smith makes sure it doesn't coast.
Who's playing
Floyd Smithguitar
Earl Edwardssaxophone
Houston Persontenor saxophone
John Harrismembranophone
