Soul jazz grew out of hard bop in the late 1950s and flourished through the 1960s. It is built from the bottom up: a steady, often syncopated bass line locks with the drums into a groove, and riffs and melodies coloured by gospel, blues and rhythm and blues are layered on top. Tunes are catchy and repetitive in a danceable way, and soloists stay close to the chord changes.
The Hammond B-3 organ is the style’s signature sound, above all in the hands of Jimmy Smith, often considered its father, and in compact organ trios. Other key names include Cannonball Adderley, whose hit Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (1966) was written by his pianist Joe Zawinul, Lee Morgan with The Sidewinder, Horace Silver, Stanley Turrentine and Brother Jack McDuff. Many of these records were bound up with the Civil Rights era and with expressions of Black pride. For lo-fi listeners, soul jazz is the warm, bluesy, groove-first end of the jazz spectrum.