A development of hard bop which incorporated strong influences from blues, gospel and rhythm and blues in music for small groups, often the organ trio which featured the Hammond organ. Important soul jazz organists included Bill Doggett, Richard 'Groove' Holmes, Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Smith and Johnny Hammond Smith.

Tenor saxophone was also important in soul jazz; important soul jazz tenors include Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis and Stanley Turrentine.

Unlike hard bop, soul jazz generally emphasised repetitive grooves and melodic hooks and improvisations were often less complex than in other jazz styles. A well-known soul jazz recording is Ramsey Lewis's The In Crowd, a major hit from 1965.

Soul jazz was developed in the late 1950s and was perhaps most popular in the early 1970s, though many soul jazz performers and elements of the music remain popular.

Although the term contains the word soul, soul jazz is only a distant cousin to soul music, in that soul developed from gospel and blues rather than from jazz.