Move Your Hand

Recorded live on 9 August 1969 at Club Harlem in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with a quintet of Ronnie Cuber on baritone saxophone, Rudy Jones on tenor saxophone, Larry McGee on guitar, and Sylvester Goshay on drums. The session was recorded by Ed Greene and subsequently re-recorded and mastered by Rudy Van Gelder at his Englewood Cliffs studio. The title track of Smith's most celebrated Blue Note album, 'Move Your Hand' showcased the Hammond B-3 organist in an electrifying live setting at the height of the soul-jazz and funk movement, with Smith taking a rare lead vocal over a relentlessly driving groove. Down Beat named Smith their Top Organist of 1969, and the album received a four-star AllMusic review praising the session's sustained funk vitality. Described by Blue Note as Smith's most sampled album, the record became a touchstone of the rare-groove and crate-digging movements, with the title track's hypnotic organ riff and chant-like vocal cited as one of the heaviest sounds in the organ-jazz canon. The album's influence extends across hip-hop production and the late-1980s and 1990s rare-groove scenes on both sides of the Atlantic.