For the latter half of the gloriously funky '60s, soul jazz flowered in popularity, buttering up audiences with a funkier backbeat and more gospel-tinged improv style than the hard bop style that dominated jazz at the time. Few soul jazz combos knew how to keep the pot boiling like organist Lonnie Smith's quintet, heard on Move Your Hand playing a steaming set at Atlantic City's Club Harlem on August 9, 1969. Producer Francis Wolff must have had a heck of a time editing out all the audience noise, because this was definitely not a jazz concert for quiet sitting or contemplation. Even listening to Move Your Hand decades later, the joyful whooping and hollering come on their own accord when faced with Lonnie Smith's effortlessly grooving set.

Smith's combo transforms the Coasters' doo-wop tune "Charlie Brown" into a gospel-blues to open Move Your Hand, and the results are alley-cat slinky. Solos (soul-ohs?) rotate among Smith's organ, a guitar and two saxes, and each one just deepens the song's soulful vibe. Larry McGee's six-string flurries toss spicy syncopations into the burbling blues gumbo, playing inside and out of drummer Sylvester Goshay's funky shuffle. "Layin' in the Cut" does exactly that: For 10 chilled-out minutes, Smith and Co. get lost deep in the pocket, picking away at a single jazz chord with a lone sax melody as the only signpost on the way to groove nirvana.

Each member of Lonnie Smith's group is a virtuoso, yet there's no grandstanding on Move Your Hand. Everyone is a slave to the groove, especially Smith himself. Instead of spitting scorching Hammond B3 licks, he kneads and molds the mid-paced rhythm of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman," slathering it in hot sauce and significantly upping the sexiness quotient of the original. The track is all about funky deconstruction—the subtle interlocking of the instruments (hand percussion gets in on this one, too) is more important than sticking with the melody. And that's the MO for Move Your Hand: Find the groove, let it simmer, and ride it on home.

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