Major N. Clark Smith

The liner notes from the world’s record collections would read differently if credit was automatically given for important influences. It?s likely that if so that Main N. Clark Smith’s name will be just about everywhere, at least with regards to African-American music artists. Particular in his tenure as bandmaster at Lincoln SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL in Kansas Town, he was in charge of training a few of the most swinging music artists to emerge from this jazz and tempo & blues mecca such as for example Lamar Wright, Harlan Leonard, Walter Web page, and Jasper “Jap” Allen. Among Lionel Hampton’s first gigs was playing drums in Smith’s Chicago Defender Newsboy’s Music group. Remarks from these and several various other players about their mentor’s impact think of a comparison using the seasoning in the soup; no real matter what the main component is, not really a spoonful will be palatable without it. Smith was a specialist musician from age 16 and finally trained at five different institutions like the Tuskegee Institute, Traditional western College or university, Wendell Phillips SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL in Chicago and Sumner SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL in St. Louis, aswell as the earlier mentioned senior high school. As referred to by Leonard within an interview with Kansas Town jazz scholar Ross Russell, Smith “was brief, gruff, armed forces in bearing, used eyeglasses and was under no circumstances without his complete uniform and adornments. His vocabulary was rather tough and occasionally surprising towards the few teenagers who were acquiring music classes, though under no circumstances unpleasant.” His marching rings were considered among the better in the united states. Smith earned a Wanamaker award in 1930 for the expanded structure “Negro Folk Collection.” The piece was premiered with the St. Louis Symphony in early 1933.