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Willie "The Lion" Smith
With his derby and cigar, along with his command of counterpoint and swing, Willie "The Lion" Smith was one of the jazz world's outsized characters. Bravery during World War I earned him his nickname; friendship and mutual admiration led to Duke Ellington's "Portrait of The Lion" and Smith's own "Portrait of Duke." William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholoff was born in Goshen, N.Y., on Nov. 25, 1897. Growing up in Newark, he began playing at age 6, drawn to the piano by his mother's playing in church. His father's Jewish ancestry later led to work as a cantor, he claimed, during the '40s. In 1916, Willie enlisted in the Army where he became the drum major for his unit. During World War I, he spent over a month on the front lines, where he earned his name "The Lion" for his bravery. After returning from the war, he established himself as one of Harlem's most illustrious stride piano players, familiar in the cutting contests with other pianists that went on after hours at speakeasies, or at rent parties. The Lion quickly became a mentor for younger musicians such as Duke Ellington, Bix Beiderbecke, Artie Shaw, and the Dorsey Brothers. They would often go up to Harlem and listen to Willie and play and ask for musical tips to better their skills. During the '20s he toured with singer Mamie Smith and played on her "Crazy Blues," but was generally unknown to the public until his Decca recordings of the mid '30s, when he recorded with a small band called Willie The Lion and his Cubs. But these sessions with a band are not as revealing of his mature style as the later Commodore sessions with their impressionistic rendering of a New York City park, "Echoes of Spring" and classical techniques heard in "Passionette." His solo recordings from 1939 are often reckoned to be his finest work, but he went on making discs well into the 1960s and beyond, some of them including his own spoken comments and repartee, as he demonstrated his playing at the keyboard. His fame spread when Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey performed arrangements of his compositions. Smith toured Europe in 1949 and again in the mid '60s; appeared in the film Jazz Dance in 1954 and wrote his memoirs, Music On My Mind in '65. Willie "The Lion" Smith lived through six decades of music and, despite the changes in musical styles over those years; he remained true to himself and his own style.
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Willie "The Lion" Smith & Don Ewell: Stride Piano Duets—Live in Toronto, 1966
by Jerry D'Souza
Willie “The Lion" Smith was one of the great stride pianists whose style and approach were an inspiration to many. His ideas were fermented by a larger-than-life presence that he transfused into his playing. He also transmitted his unabashed exuberance to his audience. The power of his playing and his animation come to the fore on this recording with Don Ewell.
Ewell was a stride pianist in a class of his own. He may not be as well ...
Continue ReadingWillie "The Lion" Smith & Don Ewell: Stride Piano Duets. Live In Toronto 1966
by Nic Jones
The more time passes, the starker the light thrown on a release like this. This is a point that can't be emphasized enough when it comes to something like the stride piano style and Delmark deserves high praise indeed for putting in the work necessary to get this music out there.
Smith was arguably the greatest stride exponent, but it would be a little misleading to suggest that Ewell was a relative acolyte, especially in view of the fact that ...
Continue ReadingFrank Wildhorn Unveils 'Frank Wildhorn & Friends: Live In Las Vegas With Jane Monheit And Clint Holmes' A Dynamic Return To His Jazz Roots Recorded Live At The Smith Center Inside Cabaret Jazz
Source:
Jill Siegel
Frank & Friends: Live in Las Vegas with Jane Monheit and Clint Holmes, a captivating live album recorded at the Smith Center inside Cabaret Jazz is now available on all streaming platforms featuring 17 tracks lovingly selected by the renowned multi-Grammy, Tony, and Emmy Award-nominated composer and producer Frank Wildhorn for Jane Monheit and Clint Holmes. This album, produced by Frank Wildhorn and Myron Martin, features songs from Wildhorn musicals “Jekyll & Hyde”, “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, “ Wonderland,”” Camille Claudel” ...
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Perfection: Paul Smith - Under My Skin (1957)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Last weekend, I posted a video clip that included pianist Paul Smith accompanying Frank Sinatra. Smith belonged to a small group of superb West Coast jazz studio pianists that included Lou Levy, Jimmy Rowles and Pete Jolly. In the late 1950s, Smith recorded four albums for Capitol that became known as the Liquid Sound sessions. One of them was Delicate Jazz, recorded in November 1957. For this week's Perfection clip, I've chosen I've Got You Under My Skin. I'm not ...
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Perfection: Keely Smith - The Song Is You (1958)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Few pop singers in the 1950s could swing like Keely Smith. Anita O'Day was certainly one of them, but Smith was the finer vocalist and surely knew more songs and required fewer takes in the studio. In some respects, Smith was the female Frank Sinatra, able to move ahead of the beat, behind it and go a different way on song lines and pull them off. So many of her albums are excellent with a different feeling on each one. ...
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Eliot King Smith Teams Up With Audrey Martells (Chic) To Bring To Life The Story Of Josephine Baker
Source:
Glass Onyon PR - Keith James
In the 1920s, faced with the grinding poverty and segregation of East St. Louis, Josephine Baker took her dancing and musical talents first to New York, and then, at 19, arrived in Paris to perform with the Folies Bergère. Entranced by her reception and treatment by French society, she rose to stardom almost immediately at the Folies. She starred in multiple films, and scored a big hit song that summed up her reverence for the freedom she experienced as a ...
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Perfection: Jimmy Smith - 'Too Old to Dream'
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In April 1960, organist Jimmy Smith joined forces with tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine and recorded Back at the Chicken Shack for Blue Note. One of the tracks was “When I Grow Too Old to Dream," by Oscar Hammerstein II, Sigmund Romberg. The song was introduced in The Night Is Young (1935) and was given a gospel-soul shove on the 1963 album by Smith, Turrentine and Donald Bailey on drums. (Guitarist Kenny Burrell appears on two tracks but not this one.) ...
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Doc: The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
From 1957 to 1965, photographer W Eugene Smith lived in loft space at 821 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Smith had already established himself as a pioneer of the journalistic photo essay—a collection of images that told a story in magazines, most notably Life. Before the rise of the documentary in the early 1960s with the advent of the portable shoulder camera, Smith's photo montages served the same purpose in still images. In 1957, Smith left his wife and four children ...
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Steve Holt Celebrates 40th Anniversary Digital Reissue Of Debut Album 'The Lion's Eyes'
Source:
Steve Holt
Jazz fans and music enthusiasts alike are in for a treat as Steve Holt, JUNO-nominated musician and renowned jazz pianist, announces the digital reissue of his debut album, The Lion's Eyes, on December 22, exactly 40 years after its original vinyl release. Originally nominated for a JUNO award, “The Lion's Eyes" showcases Holt's talent on the piano and features a stellar lineup of musicians, including Bob Mover on alto saxophone, Charles Ellison on trumpet, Steve Hall on tenor saxophone, Michel ...
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Paul Smith: Swinging Elegance
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
In the late 1940s and 1950s, few pianists moved as effortlessly and deftly between jazz and pop as pianist Paul Smith. Instrumental pop, as a genre, came into its own after 1948, with the advent of the 10-inch LP. Pop back then still had plenty of swing but was really jazz-light—easy-going music that had a bit of a kick but didn't venture too far off a familiar song's melody. Pop as a lucrative record-company division emerged then when record buyers ...
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Legendary Trumpeter/Composer Wadada Leo Smith To Premiere His Monumental New Work, America Transformed, At Brooklyn College From Sept. 8–11
Source:
Braithwaite & Katz Communications
At 81 years of age, Wadada Leo Smith is deep in the midst of the most creative and prolific period of an already formidable career. On the heels of a yearlong 80th birthday celebration that featured a number of dazzling performances along with several large-scale releases, the visionary composer and trumpeter will premiere his most monumental work to date. From September 8 to 11 at Brooklyn College’s Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts, Smith will present the ...
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Sun Ra Arkestra Veteran Drummer Wayne Smith, Jr. Releases 'Be Still,' A Powerful Venture In Emotion And Tranquility
Source:
Outside in Music
Wayne Smith Jr. is a drummer, composer, and educator with a multifaceted palette of soundscapes and genres at his disposal. Having toured across three continents, performed throughout the New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. music scenes, and currently working as a staple member of the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra, Smith’s accolades rightly herald his abilities as a master craftsman of the drum set. Described as an “inventive drummer who displays an in-depth musical consciousness,” and who is “willing to embrace ...
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