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Johnny “Hammond” Smith was born John Robert Smith on December 16, 1933 in Louisville, Kentucky and earned the nickname “Hammond” for his renowned playing on the B3. In the early years of his career he played with Paul Williams and Chris Columbo before forming his own group. His bands featured singers Etta Jones, Byrdie Green, saxophonists Houston Person, Earl Edwards, guitarists Eddie McFadden, Floyd Smith, James Clark and vibist Freddie McCoy. However, his career took off as he was serving as accompanist to singer Nancy Wilson.

After a string of albums over a 10-year period at Prestige Records during the 60s, Johnny signed with CTI’s Kudu label, launching it with his soul/R&B project “Break Out” that featured Grover Washington Jr. as a sideman prior to the launch of his career as a solo recording artist. Three further albums followed and he became “Johnny Hammond”, dropping “Smith” from his name.

Adapting to the changing sound of the music Johnny’s style had become increasingly funky. This culminated in two popular albums with the Mizell Brothers, “Gambler’s Life” (1974) for the CTI offshoot, Salvation and then in 1975, “Gears” after switching to another jazz label, Milestone Records, incorporating electric and acoustic pianos as well.

As an educator he taught at Cal Poly Pomona music department for several years, penned “Quiet Fire” for Nancy Wilson’s 1989 “Nancy Now” album and remained a hard bop and soul jazz organist until his passing on June 10, 2004.

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