My Pick:
“Back at the Chicken Shack" on Blue Note

Hammond organist Jimmy Smith has made a lot of albums. Like many artists, his early material tends to be fresh and power-packed -- real burners. This is some of the finest soul jazz -- groove music -- ever made.

Ben Helmke grew up on a farm in Pratt County, Kansas in the 1930s. He served as an organist in the Army chaplain’s office at Camp Schimmelpfennig (now Camp Sendai) in Japan. Helmke graduated from Hastings College and McCormick Seminary and got his masters in social work from the University of Michigan. He and his wife Polly raised three children and he started his own mental health clinic. Late in life, he came out as gay to his wife and children. He lived happily with his partner Len Quenon for 25 years.