Jabbo Smith, born as Cladys Smith (December 24, 1908 –
January 16, 1991) was an American jazz musician, known for his virtuoso playing
on the trumpet. He had one of the oddest careers in jazz history. A brilliant
trumpeter, Smith had accomplished virtually all of his most significant work by
the time he turned 21, yet lived to be 82.
Jabbo Smith was born in Pembroke, Georgia on Christmas
Eve in 1908, the son of a barber and church organist. After the death of his
father when Jabbo was very young he moved, at age four, to Savannah. His mother
found it increasingly difficult to care for him and at age six Jabbo was placed
into the Jenkins Orphanage Home in Charleston where he was nicknamed Jabbo. His
mother also found employment in the Home in order to be near to him.
The Jenkins Home
placed heavy emphasis on music education and produced a number of important
Jazzmen who received their first public playing experience while touring with
one of several student orchestras. It was in this setting that Jabbo took up
trumpet and trombone at the age of eight and began touring the country with a
student band at the age of ten.
After unsuccessfully attempting to leave the institution
a number of times, Jabbo finally left for good at the age of sixteen to become
a professional musician, at first playing in bands in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New Jersey before making his base in Manhattan,
New York City where he made the first of
his well regarded recordings. He made (and kept)
a promise to his mother never to work for less than one hundred dollars a week,
a good wage in those days.
During 1925-1928 he was with Charlie Johnson's Paradise
Ten, a top New York jazz group that made some classic recordings. Smith was on
a recording session with Duke Ellington in 1927 (resulting in a memorable
version of "Black and Tan Fantasy") and played in the show Keep
Shufflin' with James P. Johnson and Fats Waller.
The high points of Smith's career were his 1929
recordings with his Rhythm Aces. These superb performances feature Smith playing
with daring, creativity, and a bit of recklessness, displaying an exciting
style that hints at Roy Eldridge (who would not burst upon the scene for
another six years). But, although Jabbo Smith at the time was considered a
close competitor of Louis Armstrong, he had hit his peak. His unreliability,
excessive drinking, and unprofessional attitude resulted in lost jobs, missed
opportunities, and a steep decline.
Toward the end of the 1930's Jabbo gradually withdrew
from serious music activity. He led a group for a while at the 1939 World's
Fair in New York and gigged in a Newark, N.J. club called the Alcazar. It was
there that he encouraged a 17 year old Newark singer who sat in at the Alcazar
from time to time to enter a talent show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. She
won and got her start. The Singer? The Divine One, Sarah Vaughn. It seems Jabbo
also had an ear for talent !
Soon after, Jabbo
moved to Milwaukee where he married, did some local playing and enjoyed the
security of a steady job with a car rental agency. There Jabbo Smith, one of
the top four or five most influential trumpet players of Jazz, languished in
quiet oblivion for twenty years. This was indeed a catastrophic musical loss.
Finally, around 1960, Jabbo was rediscovered. He subsequently recorded two
albums (his style a mere shadow of his former heights) and in 1979 was a guest
artist in the musical One Mo' Time which opened to rave reviews. He also made
appearances at several Jazz festivals, toured Europe and performed at the West
End Cafe, the Bottom Line and the Village Vanguard, all in New York. One of his
last public performances was in Berlin in 1986 where he greatly impressed Don
Cherry, the avant-garde trumpeter!
Jabbo suffered a stroke in May of 1990 and was living in
the Village Nursing Home in New York. Jabbo died in January of 1991 at age 82
from pneumonia, but not before learning of his acceptance to the Coastal Jazz Hall
of Fame. (Info compiled and edited from All Music, Red Hot Jazz &
Wikipedia)
1 comment:
For “Jabbo Smith's Rhythm Aces (1929-1938)” go here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/5bpo7es2tw8ydiw/JabboSmith29-38.rar
1. Jazz battle (2:40)
2. Little Willie blues (3:24)
3. Sleepy time blues (3:27)
4. Take your time (2:48)
5. Sweet and low blues (3:21)
6. Take me to the river (2:51)
7. Ace of rhythm (2:55)
8. Let's get together (3:30)
9. Sau-sha stomp (3:06)
10. Michigander blues (3:22)
11. Decatur Street tutti (2:48)
12. Till times get better (3:09)
13. Lina blues (3:32)
14. Weird and blue (3:03)
15. Croonin' the blues (3:13)
16. I got the stinger (3:20)
17. Boston skuffle (2:52)
18. Tanguay blues (2:48)
19. Band box stomp (3:02)
20. Moanful blues (3:00)
21. Rhythm in Spain (2:44)
22. Absolutely (3:00)
23. More rain, more rest (2:46)
24. How can Cupid be so stupid? (3:10).
A big thank you to Augusto @ Don’t Knock The Rock blog for mp3’s
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