Johnny Smith
| Johnny Smith | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | John Henry Smith II |
| Born |
June 25, 1922 Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | June 11, 2013 (aged 90) Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1935–1992 |
| Labels | Columbia, Concord, Roost, Roulette, Verve |
| Associated acts | Bing Crosby, Count Basie, Stan Getz, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton |
| Website | www |
| Notable instruments | |
John Henry "Johnny" Smith (June 25, 1922 – June 11, 2013) was an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist. He wrote the tune "Walk, Don't Run" in 1954. In 1984, Smith was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
During the Great Depression, Smith's family moved from Birmingham, Alabama, through several cities, ending up in Portland, Maine.
Smith taught himself to play guitar in pawnshops, which let him play in exchange for keeping the guitars in tune. At thirteen years of age he was teaching others to play the guitar. One of Smith's students bought a new guitar and gave him his old guitar, which became the first guitar Smith owned.
Smith joined Uncle Lem and the Mountain Boys, a local hillbilly band that travelled around Maine, performing at dances, fairs and similar venues. Smith earned four dollars a night. He dropped out of high school to accommodate this enterprise.
Having become increasingly interested in the jazz bands that he heard on the radio, Smith gradually moved away from country music towards playing more jazz. He left The Mountain Boys when he was eighteen years old to join a variety trio called the Airport Boys.
Having learned to fly from pilots he befriended, Smith enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps in the hopes of becoming a military pilot. He was invalidated from the flight programme because of imperfect vision in his left eye. Given a choice between joining the military band and being sent to mechanic's school, Smith opted to join the military band. Smith claims that they gave him a cornet, an Arban's instructional book and two weeks to meet the standard, which included being able to read music. Determined not to go to mechanic's school, Smith spent the two weeks practicing the cornet in the latrine, as recommended by the bandleader, and passed the examination.
An extremely diverse musician, Johnny Smith was equally at home playing in the famous Birdland jazz club or sight-reading scores in the orchestral pit of the New York Philharmonic. From Schoenberg to Gershwin to originals, Smith was one of the most versatile guitarists of the 1950s.
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Wikipedia