Johnny Smith, IMO, the Greatest Jazz Guitarist
John E. Golden
to Colorado Springs and opened a music store about 1958. I had heard that
he didn't play anymore after that, but evidently he did take a gig or two
because I discovered this video gem on YouTube (Thank you, God!) of Johnny
playing at a University Jazz Festival in Mobile, AL in 1984, when Johnny
would have been sixty-two years old. Johnny is playing the not-so-old
standard "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life" on an original
D'Angelico Archtop. Elegant and Tasteful Playing:
Here is an interesting bio of Johnny Smith:
Regards,
John E. Golden
guitarannie
He's my favorite too.
One of the so-called jazz guitar sites doesn't even list him.
Ah well.
Thanks for the bio link. Family first. Nice guy.
SAS
Tim McNamara
<28bcb252-1d7a-4eda...@z13g2000prh.googlegroups.com>,
guitarannie <guita...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On May 23, 3:32�pm, "John E. Golden" <johnisgol...@NOSPAMgmail.
> He's my favorite too.
> One of the so-called jazz guitar sites doesn't even list him.
> Ah well.
Well, Smith himself kept denying he was a jazz guitarist in interviews...
> Thanks for the bio link. Family first. Nice guy.
Yah, his priorities seemed to have been pretty straight.
Tim McNamara
"John E. Golden" <johnis...@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote:
> Johnny Smith, who was born in 1922, retired from active playing and
> moved to Colorado Springs and opened a music store about 1958. I had
> heard that he didn't play anymore after that, but evidently he did
> take a gig or two because I discovered this video gem on YouTube
> (Thank you, God!) of Johnny playing at a University Jazz Festival in
> Mobile, AL in 1984, when Johnny would have been sixty-two years old.
> Johnny is playing the not-so-old standard "What Are You Doing the
> Rest of Your Life" on an original D'Angelico Archtop. Elegant and
> Tasteful Playing:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/23agwx9
That's been posted before but it's always great to see. There's another
one YouTube with Johnny and Mundell Lowe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jlDZ4OqMtI
> Here is an interesting bio of Johnny Smith:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/27rf8do
I hadn't seen that one.
ES175_Player
mosaic set is well worth the money.
One of the aricles I read, Johnny said his favorite view of New York
was from his rear view mirror as he was leaving town and driving to
Colorado.LOL..
pmfan57
> In article
> <28bcb252-1d7a-4eda-8762-770d50365...@z13g2000prh.googlegroups.com>,
>
> guitarannie <guitaran...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On May 23, 3:32 pm, "John E. Golden" <johnisgol...@NOSPAMgmail.
> > He's my favorite too.
> > One of the so-called jazz guitar sites doesn't even list him.
> > Ah well.
>
> Well, Smith himself kept denying he was a jazz guitarist in interviews...
>
> > Thanks for the bio link. Family first. Nice guy.
>
> Yah, his priorities seemed to have been pretty straight.
As I recall, he said he didn't think he was really a jazz guitarist in
the same sense that, say, Jimmy Raney was a jazz guitarist. Pat
Martino classified Smith in one interview as a step time improviser,
apparently meaning he had a lot of things planned out. Since Smith
was one of Pat's heroes he didn't mean this in a derogatory manner.
Smith sure played beautiful guitar no matter how you slice it.
Joe Finn
news:Xns9D81BCA025062j...@69.16.185.250...
I'm a big fan of Johnny Smith too. His recordings still amaze me. ....joe
--
Visit me on the web www.JoeFinn.net
Or say hello via Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/?ref=home
edisoned
About 8 years ago I had the good fortune to aquire a guitar that was
reported to be once owned by Johnny. Through a mutual friend, I got
his phone # and called him to ask him if I could send him some photos
of the guitar. His wife must have thought I was a phone solicitor and
didn't give him the message right away and about a week later I find a
message on my voice mail from Johnny, apologizing for not getting back
to me sooner. Long story short, I sent him photos of the instrument
and details and he went way out of his way to spend time looking at
old photos of his and determined that it indeed was a guitar that he
owned in the 1950's. What a sweet gentle man for taking the time to do
this. One of these days I'll write more about this story as it is
pretty interesting.
Ed
On May 23, 3:32 pm, "John E. Golden" <johnisgol...@NOSPAMgmail.com>
wrote:
JoeJazz2000
back, and he repeated the statement that he never considered himself a
jazz player. The audience didn't care what he considered himself; it
was crazy about him.
The Pat Martino attribution is accurate. Johnny Smith is a profoundly
great guitarist and major influence on the art. Whether he improvisd
on the fly or worked out his solos in advance is of no consequence.
His brilliant playing overshadows the importance of that.
Bryce
> The longer you're in this business, the more you realize that anyone
> that gets to the top, has to have the instincts of a barrecuda to stay
> up there.
> I won't elaborate until JS is in that great church in the sky that
> Jack, John Locke and the other cast members of Lost found themselves
> in last night, but after he's gone, I can see me makin' a big killing
> on this one.
> Yeah, the Inquirer will give me a good 20, 30 bucks for this story ;
> ' )
>
> This message will self-destruct, based on the level of apathy and/or
> antipathy it recei9ves.
We should all go out to Colorado and have a party for him. He's a
living legend. I heard some amazing stories about him in NYC. He could
sight read anything apparently. I also heard that he mastered the art
of closed voicings. I gave up on closed voicings in leu of drop2 drop3
inversions and such because of the long finger stretches required to
play the closed voicings. The advantages of closed voices are
profound: chord formed arpeggios sweeps (no need to change fingers),
closed contrapuntal harmony (for the creative minded), piano-like
linear playing. JS mastered it. I have an old chord book somewhere
that Patt/Wayne did which documents all of the closed voicing tetrads
(this stuff is not in the CW Chord Studies book). Amazing stuff to
conquer if one is willing and has long fingers.
Bryce
Tim McNamara
<37a68c09-ff07-4e49...@o12g2000vba.googlegroups.com>,
pmfan57 <jwra...@aol.com> wrote:
Oh yeah! I have several Johnny Smith CDs and they are among my
favorites. Wonderful, wonderful music.
george4908
> conquer if one is willing and has long fingers.
Or if you play a Byrdland.
Jim Soloway
regular rotation around here. He was an incredibly thoughtful man on
the subject of guitar playing and one comment I read in an interview
with him has stayed with me for decades now as a core of my playing.
I didn't realize that he was so far under the radar. I consider him
to be one of the handful of the primary influences on the instrument.
drthoma...@gmail.com
>
> Even the great JS was not quite the little angel I thought he was.
> The longer you're in this business, the more you realize that anyone
> that gets to the top, has to have the instincts of a barrecuda to stay
> up there.
> I won't elaborate until JS is in that great church in the sky that
> Jack, John Locke and the other cast members of Lost found themselves
> in last night, but after he's gone, I can see me makin' a big killing
> on this one.
> Yeah, the Inquirer will give me a good 20, 30 bucks for this story
I heard he once bought a high-powered rifle with a scope, rented a
room across from the Vatican, aimed out the window for three days
straight, finally got a clear bead on the Pope's bald pate, and then
pussied out at the last minute.
Tim McNamara
<5afecf93-1649-488e...@c11g2000vbe.googlegroups.com>,
"tomb...@jhu.edu" <drthoma...@gmail.com> wrote:
Wow!
Tim McNamara
<d7aaea10-ca0d-425c...@a16g2000prg.googlegroups.com>,
Jim Soloway <j...@jimsoloway.com> wrote:
> He's my wife's favorite jazz guitarist so he's always in fairly
> regular rotation around here. He was an incredibly thoughtful man on
> the subject of guitar playing and one comment I read in an interview
> with him has stayed with me for decades now as a core of my playing.
What wazzat?
> I didn't realize that he was so far under the radar. I consider him
> to be one of the handful of the primary influences on the instrument.
He's fairly unknown. The Penguin jazz guide from a few years back-
which has a number of problems vis a vis guitarists- basically dismissed
him as a flash in the pan with a hit in "Moonllght in Vermont" and "out
of the business by the end of the 50s."
Clueless much?
van
wrote:
Yeah, that's the one.
You academics always get access to info that even we high school
teachers can't get.
Took me ten or eleven lap dances to get that one ; - )
Jim Soloway
> Jim Soloway <j...@jimsoloway.com> wrote:
>
> > He's my wife's favorite jazz guitarist so he's always in fairly
> > regular rotation around here. He was an incredibly thoughtful man on
> > the subject of guitar playing and one comment I read in an interview
> > with him has stayed with me for decades now as a core of my playing.
>
> What wazzat?
>
He talked about an epiphany he'd had watching an organist. since an
organ has infinite sustain, he was able to hold down one note from a
chord while he fingered the next chord, releasing the sustained note
only after the next chord began. Thus he was able to create a legato
effect while playing a chordal arrangement. Smith made a conscious
effort to incorporate that technique into his chordal arrangements.
For whatever reason, that idea made a lot of sense to me. I realized
that I had been doing some of that without really thinking about it,
so I made a real effort to make it a more central part of my playing.
That was about twenty years ago and now it comes almost naturally.
roowirra
My late dear friend, Bill Churchman of Taupo, New Zealand was a great
fan.In the mid 1980's,his wife heard that Johnny Smith was coming to
Taupo to indulge in his other great love, trout fishing. She contacted
him, and he arranged a rendezvous with Bill, which thrilled him til
the end of his days.It was a gracious and generous tete a tete, but I
guess we can only wait for the posthumous release of the Buddy Rich/
Johnny Smith tour bus tapes ;)
jga...@visi.com
for several years as Van can attest. This post got my attention. Smith
is my all time favorite guitarist for a variety of reasons, the two
biggest ones being tone and restrained technique. By the latter, I
mean even though he has "monster chops," he doesn't overplay the
instrument like some have a tendency to do. I am fortunate that I've
had the opportunity to meet and speak with him several times. It is
correct that Johnny didn't consider himself a jazz guitarist, but
other musicians would say otherwise. When I asked the late Hank Jones
about this, his response was, "Johnny can improvise, all right...he's
just so humble about it."
Yeah, he probably wrote out some of his arrangements or thought about
what he might play ahead of time; to me this doesn't detract from his
playing. In a sense I'd say many musicians think about what they might
play ahead of time. Case in point, I recently picked up the Mosaic Joe
Pass Pacific Jazz box set, which contains two versions of Bag's
Groove. One was on his first album after Sounds of Synanon; the other
was a live version that was an unissued take from the Simplicity
sessions recorded a few years later; his solo on the second, live
version was virtually identical up until the last chorus, which really
surprised me.
I chuckled at Tom Brown's response. There's quite an interesting story
about JS in Gene Lees' book Waiting for Dizzy where Spike Robinson
talks about "Bullets Smith." I'll summarize: Spike owned a restaurant/
club in Boulder, Colo., and Johnny was a regular in the group that
played there. One night there was an altercation between the
bartender, Spike and some drunk patrons. One thing led to another and
Johnny told Spike and the bartender to leave because he noticed that
one of them had a tire iron. Johnny went out to his car to wait for
Spike. The two drunks came up to Johnny's car and told him to get out.
JS put a revolver to the guy's nose, whereupon they ran away.
Apparently, Johnny had a guitarist friend in Philadelphia who was
accosted by some thugs and subsequently died. Ever since then he
carried a gun in his guitar case. Who knew?
John Galich
Tim McNamara
<6fb99970-21c3-4541...@u20g2000pru.googlegroups.com>,
Jim Soloway <j...@jimsoloway.com> wrote:
> On May 25, 4:34�pm, Tim McNamara <tim...@bitstream.net> wrote:
> > In article
> > <d7aaea10-ca0d-425c-b6e9-851d2bb37...@a16g2000prg.googlegroups.com>,
> > �Jim Soloway <j...@jimsoloway.com> wrote:
> >
> > > He's my wife's favorite jazz guitarist so he's always in fairly
> > > regular rotation around here. �He was an incredibly thoughtful
> > > man on the subject of guitar playing and one comment I read in an
> > > interview with him has stayed with me for decades now as a core
> > > of my playing.
> >
> > What wazzat?
> >
>
> He talked about an epiphany he'd had watching an organist. since an
> organ has infinite sustain, he was able to hold down one note from a
> chord while he fingered the next chord, releasing the sustained note
> only after the next chord began. Thus he was able to create a legato
> effect while playing a chordal arrangement. Smith made a conscious
> effort to incorporate that technique into his chordal arrangements.
> For whatever reason, that idea made a lot of sense to me. I realized
> that I had been doing some of that without really thinking about it,
> so I made a real effort to make it a more central part of my playing.
> That was about twenty years ago and now it comes almost naturally.
Interesting. Now that you say it, it's very clear in his playing. He
might slide that note up or down a fret or hold is steady, but a note is
almost always playing to bridge chords. Ed Bickert does some of this
too, although differently in terms of effect.
hw
<jga...@visi.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:5adaf9b5-cc89-4b78...@b21g2000vbh.googlegroups.com...
> Though I haven't posted much lately, I have been a part of this group
> for several years as Van can attest. This post got my attention. Smith
> is my all time favorite guitarist for a variety of reasons, the two
> biggest ones being tone and restrained technique. By the latter, I
> mean even though he has "monster chops," he doesn't overplay the
> instrument like some have a tendency to do. I am fortunate that I've
> had the opportunity to meet and speak with him several times. It is
> correct that Johnny didn't consider himself a jazz guitarist, but
> other musicians would say otherwise. When I asked the late Hank Jones
> about this, his response was, "Johnny can improvise, all right...he's
> just so humble about it."
>
> Yeah, he probably wrote out some of his arrangements or thought about
> what he might play ahead of time; to me this doesn't detract from his
> playing. In a sense I'd say many musicians think about what they might
> play ahead of time. Case in point, I recently picked up the Mosaic Joe
> Pass Pacific Jazz box set, which contains two versions of Bag's
> Groove. One was on his first album after Sounds of Synanon; the other
> was a live version that was an unissued take from the Simplicity
> sessions recorded a few years later; his solo on the second, live
> version was virtually identical up until the last chorus, which really
> surprised me.
it's the same track. the first one is spliced, the second one is the
complete version.
Joe Finn
news:5afecf93-1649-488e...@c11g2000vbe.googlegroups.com...
All kidding aside, I was thinking someone would have mentioned the story
behind how he got his nickname "bullets" by now. ........joe
jga...@visi.com
the last minute.
>
> All kidding aside, I was thinking someone would have mentioned the story
> behind how he got his nickname "bullets" by now. ........joe
>
Look at my post dated 5/25.
John Galich
Charlie X
>
> We should all go out to Colorado and have a party for him. He's a
> living legend. I heard some amazing stories about him in NYC.>
>
> - Show quoted text -
Hey...if you could put somthing together and maybe even get 5 of us to
go out and buy JS dinner for a night, i would be IN. I dont think we
have that long to wait...time is passing and he is the last man
standing.
It would not cost that much and we would remember it forever. IM IN!
Also...yes, JS worked out most of his chord/melodies as set
arrangements, but his single string solos are mostly improvised and
not all worked out before hand. I talked to him at the JVC tribute
about that and he said that his idea of a jazzer was a guy who could
just walk into a jam session and 'blow his top' . He explained that he
was not a guy who haunted jams like that, so he thought he wasnt the
trad jazz guitarist. I have some live recordings of him playing many
of the tunes from his records up to the mid 70s (bootlegged from his
regular gig in Boulder after he retired) and he 'blows his top' on all
kinds of stuff including standards he never recorded. He was a jazzer
in every way as far as im concerned live...but on his records he did
tend to stick to a set arrangement. charliex.com
Joe Finn
news:93e76df1-8b60-4625...@c13g2000vbr.googlegroups.com...
>>>John Galich
Somehow I skipped over your earlier post on this but yes, that was the story
I was referring to. ......joe
van
Wow! I never knew any bootleg JS existed.
How many lap dances do we have to do to hear Them? : - )
Bryce
I will fly out to CS to have dinner with JS any day of any week.
Please keep me posted if you are able to arrange a tribute dinner for
him.
Bryce
bsuth...@cox.net
Julia & Ian Maclean & Clarke
> "tombr...@jhu.edu" <drthomasfbr...@gmail.com> wrote in message
Great british guitarist, Ivor Mairants produced a song book of great
standards which included a transcription of JS's Moonlight in Vermont
with all the changes. My dad gave it me when I left the army aged 26,
1955 or 57. that's what got me going on 'jazz' guitar - I'm still
playing in London aged 78