This handy Avid pairing unites all four of Smith's earliest live recordings, which originally appeared over four LPs on Blue Note. A set apiece from Club Baby Grand in Wilmington, Delaware and Harlem's Smalls, they present the great organist in his preferred trio format, sans any of the additional horns Messrs Lion and Wolff were apt to add to his studio dates. In essence, they are ‘working’ records inasmuch as their contents are Smith's contemporary gig repertoire captured in perpetuity. But what an act! At opposite ends of the spectrum you'll find blistering assaults like ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’ (Baby Grand) and slow groovers like ‘After Hours’ (Smalls). In between, Smith takes apart everything from Earl Hines ‘Rosetta’ to Horace Silver's ‘The Preacher’ and sounds like he's having the time of his life, but like some of Avid's other similarly neat double-CD collections that make neat discographical sense there's also a drawback in such a concentration of music.

Magnificent as Smith was, every so often you hanker for a saxophone or trumpet solo to leaven the mix. That's a minor carp, of course, because what's on offer is definitive stuff, made all the more attractive for its budget price. Indeed, don't overlook the fact that with Universal still sorting out its Blue Note reissue plan, releases like this are now doubly important. All in all, a great introduction to Smith at his stripped-down best.