Kevin Whitehead

A few other players who worked at the edges of jazz passed in 2025, including vibraphonist Roy Ayers, accordionist Guy Klusevic, much-missed pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Tremelo Pascoal, and the great Bronx-born Latin band leader Eddie Palmieri.

As a pianist, Palmieri showed off some fresh moves within the Afro-Cuban tradition.

soloing on his Dime from 2005.

Every time he slams out a chord, it's like he's switching channels to another rhythmic profile.

It's a Montuno gone postmodern.

Besides Eddie Palmieri, another formidable arranger for big bands died this year, pianist Jim McNeely, who played with New York's Vanguard Jazz Orchestra for years.

He also wrote for several European radio bands who loved how good his sleekly handsome charts made them sound.

Let's go out with a slice of Jim McNeely's Sweet Rituals, which riffed on themes and rhythms from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

McNeely looking forward and back, as the jazz greats do.

The stuff masters like these dreamed up is now part of the collective wisdom shared by all of us they leave behind.

Organist Jimmy Smith in crisp, bluesy, cooking default mode on 1964's The Cat.

In the 60s, Smith and big bands often squared off as evenly matched sparring partners.

In the 1950s, Smith had reinvented jazz organ, becoming the most imitated organist since Bach.

An early inspiration was Wild Bill Davis, who played a blurrier version of the big band-style shout choruses Smith would later tighten up.

Here's Wild Bill in 1950.

Wild Bill Davis.

Jimmy Smith could sound much like that early on when he first switched over to organ from piano.

But from his first sessions as leader in 1956, his mature concept was there.

The three-piece band with guitar, the deep bluesiness and swing feel, the earthy licks and heavy complications, and the clean and dirty colors he'd draw from the Hammond B-3 organ's tone controls.

And while his hands kept busy with all that, his left foot tapped out bass lines on a pedalboard as his right foot controlled the volume.