Smooth as the Wind
1961 album by Blue Mitchell
Smooth as the Wind is an album by American trumpeter Blue Mitchell with strings and brass recorded in late 1960 and early 1961 and released on the Riverside label.
Reception
The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4 stars and stated "Trumpeter Blue Mitchell is in excellent form on this very interesting session... The arrangements (seven by Tadd Dameron and three from Benny Golson) are generally quite stimulating, inspiring the trumpeter to come up with many fresh melodic solos... By varying tempos and moods, Dameron and Golson helped create one of the better soloist-with-strings jazz dates".
Track listing
"Smooth as the Wind" (Tadd Dameron) - 5:10
"But Beautiful" (Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen) - 3:35
"The Best Things in Life Are Free" (Brown, DeSylva, Henderson) 3:18
"Peace" (Horace Silver) - 3:53
"For Heaven's Sake" (Elise Bretton, Sherman Edwards, Donald Meyer) - 3:32
"The Nearness of You" (Hoagy Carmichael, Ned Washington) - 3:22
"A Blue Time" (Dameron) - 4:52
"Strollin'" (Silver) - 3:16
"For All We Know" (J. Fred Coots, Sam M. Lewis) - 3:21
"I'm a Fool to Want You" (Joel Herron, Frank Sinatra, Jack Wolf) - 3:37
Recorded in New York City on December 27, 1960 (tracks 4–6 & 8), and March 29 & 30, 1961 (tracks 1–3, 7, 9 & 10).
The public source identifies “Smooth as the Wind” as 1961 album by Blue Mitchell. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Smooth, Wind and album.
Why this record matters
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 26, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7546412. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960 and 1961.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Smooth as the Wind” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.