House Party

House Party is the fourteenth album by American jazz organist Jimmy Smith featuring performances recorded in 1957 and 1958 and released on the Blue Note label. The album was rereleased on CD with one bonus track. Background Blue Note used the Manhattan Towers Hotel Ballroom in New York City for recording sessions in 1957-1958, while their recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder was still using his parents' Hackensack, N.J. home studio to record artists. House Party was the first of two Smith albums recorded on two dates, the second was Smith's next album The Sermon!, released in 1959. Blue Note mainly used the Manhattan Towers ballroom for larger groups of musicians, or when New York was a more convenient location to record the artists involved. Reception The Allmusic review by Lindsay Planer awarded the album 4 stars stating Track listing "Au Privave" (Charlie Parker) – 15:09 "Lover Man" (Jimmy Davis, Ram Ramirez, James Sherman) – 7:00 "Just Friends" (John Klenner, Sam M. Lewis) – 15:15 "Blues After All" (Kenny Burrell) – 6:06