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Willie “The Lion” Smith

Willie “The Lion” Smith within the 1920s was considered among the big 3 of stride piano (alongside Wayne P. Johnson and Excess fat Waller) despite the fact that he made minimal recordings before mid-’30s. His mom was an organist and pianist, and Smith began playing piano when he was six. He gained a full time income playing piano as an adolescent, obtained his nickname “the Lion” for his heroism in Globe Battle I, and after his release he became among the celebrity sights at Harlem’s nightly lease celebrations. Although he toured with Mamie Smith (and performed piano on her behalf pioneering 1920 blues record “Crazy Blues”), Smith mainly freelanced throughout his existence. He was an impact on the youthful Duke Ellington (who later create “Portrait from the Lion”) & most young New York-based pianists from the 1920s and ’30s. Although he was a braggart and (along with his cigar and brand derby head wear) were a rough personality, Smith was in fact more colourful than menacing and an extremely sophisticated pianist having a light contact. His recordings along with his Cubs (beginning in 1935) and especially his 1939 piano solos for Commodore (highlighted by “Echoes of Planting season”) cemented his place ever sold. Because he continued to be very active in to the early ’70s (composing his memoirs Music on My Brain in 1965), for a number of years Willie “the Lion” Smith was regarded as a living connect to the glory times of early jazz.

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