Tony Dallara born 30 June 1936

Antonio Lardera (born 30 June 1936), better known by his stage name Tony Dallara, is an Italian former singer, actor and television personality who was one of Italy's top vocalists of the late '50s and early '60s.

Dallara was born the last of five children in Campobassoto to a family devoted to music. His father Battista in the past was a Chorister at La Scala.  Raised in Milan, after the compulsory schooling, he held various jobs including a bartender, clerk,  blacksmith, machine washer and a gas station attendant, but with his burning passion for music he joined the Rocky Mountains band where his singing style was inspired by American singers such as Frankie Laine and Tony Williams.

                               

In 1957, whilst working as a delivery man he was signed to the Italian record label Music. His first single "Come prima", although refused for admission to the Sanremo Festival, was published in 

December 1957 and sold 300,000 copies, becoming the biggest selling single in Italy up to that point. The title became a worldwide hit and is still an evergreen today. Further successes followed with "Ti dirò", "Brivido blu" and "Julia".

The highlight of his career was the victory at the San Remo Festival 1960 with the song "Romantica." With "La novia" he succeeded in 1961 again a bigger success. With the title "Bambina, bambina" he won the song competition "Canzonissima" in 1961

Dallara with Jane Russell

He performed all over the world, also holding concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York, at the Olympia in Paris and at the imperial court of Japan, which was watched by Emperor Hiroito. Friends with Louis Armstrong, he accompanied him to Sanremo and Mine where Armstrong performed what would prove to be his final concerts. Despite his friendship with Armstrong, and Dallara's efforts, he never broke through to international audiences. While Domenico Modugno had the world singing Italian with his hit, "Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu," Dallara’s success decreased.

As well as singing, Dallara appeared in six films between 1958 and 1963. From the mid-sixties, Tony Dallara reduced his public appearances, dedicating himself to a more melodic song genre and some forays into the Neapolitan song. Among the participations of these years: Un Disco per L'estate (1964), Cantagiro (1966),  Festival della Canzone Napoletana (1967). By now the musical tastes of the public had shifted and, while still continuing to record new songs throughout the sixties, Dallara is no longer able to enter the charts: even television and radio, slowly, forget about him.

In the seventies, after a last participation in " A record for summer 1972 " with Mister Love (which was excluded from the final phase of the competition), he retired from the world of music and devoted himself to painting, exhibiting his paintings in various galleries and winning Renato Guttuso's friendship and esteem. .

During the early 80’s Dallara started singing his old hits at concerts again due to a revival of the music from the sixties. He mainly performed in the summer months performing his songs  

with new arrangements. The 1990s also passed, with various television appearances in programs dedicated to the legendary 1960s. In 1991 he issued an album of twelve new songs entitled "Pensieri in Musica" which he co-authored on several tracks. In 1995 he sang in the Zecchino d'Oro. In April 2001 the President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, appointed him Knight of Merit of the Italian Republic.

In the first months of 2008, Dallara played the role of television commentator on L'Italia sul 2 on Rai 2  and later  participated in the theatrical tour of Teo Teocoli with the show Dal derby al Nuovo . He also appeared at the selections of the Sanremo Festival 2008 with Teo Teocoli, but their song Cartà d'identita was not admitted.

Throughout his career he has sung in many languages including Japanese, Spanish, German, Greek, French and Turkish, winning prizes in many foreign countries. In his later years he could still be seen on Italian television from time to time. (Painstakingly edited from Wikipedia and various blog translations)

Leo Diamond born 29 June 1915

Leo Diamond (June 29, 1915 – September 15, 1966) was an American harmonica player, songwriter, composer, orchestra leader and arranger.. Regarded as a virtuoso of the instrument, and employed on several movie soundtracks and  had two US chart hits, "Off Shore" (1953) and "Melody of Love" (1955), and released a string of LPs through the 1950s and early 1960s.

Borrah Minevitch Rascals - L. to R. Front: Ernie Morris, 

Leo Diamond, Johnny Puleo, "Fuzzy" Feldman, Abe Diamond. 

Back: Harry Fenberg, Irwin Crane, ? , Al Furbish  

Diamond was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and learned the flute and piccolo before winning a harmonica contest run by bandleader Edwin Franko Goldman in Central Park. He joined Borrah Minevitch's Harmonica Rascals in 1930, and appeared with the group in several films. He arranged and composed tunes for the Harmonica Rascals, toured with them in Europe and South America, and premiered his Concerto for the Harmonica at the Queen's Hall in London.

He left in 1943 to form his own group, the Harmonica Solidaires with his brother Abe and Richard Hayman. When Hayman left the group he was replaced by George Fields. They appeared on American Forces Network radio, and in movies including Coney Island, Hi'ya, Sailor (both 1943), Swing Out, Sister and Forever Yours (both 1945). During the war years Leo and his group went overseas to entertain the armed forces in France, Germany and Italy. The Solidaires were one of the first harmonica groups to use simplified harmonicas.

After the war Leo became pre-eminently a soloist. He was an immediate success and played some of the comtries top show places. By 1950, Diamond started to establish a solo career, principally as a recording artist though he also performed widely in clubs across the US. He provided the soundtracks to several more films, including Miss Sadie Thompson and The Eddie Cantor Story. He produced a number of recordings on which he played all parts on a variety of harmonicas, most of his own design. His self-penned instrumental, "Off Shore", for Ambassador Records, reached number 14 on the US pop chart in 1953, and he also recorded an album, Harmonica Moods, for the label.

                                

In 1955, RCA Victor released the album Harmonica Magic of Leo Diamond, and Diamond's version of the 1903 song "Melody of Love" reached number 30 on the pop chart. Diamond also wrote 

another tune called “The Girls in Brazil.” In 1956, Diamond and conductor Murray Kellner recorded the quintessential harmonica opus, Skin Diver Suite. While Side Two is standard fare, "The Skin Divers" is Diamond's side-long orchestral conception complete with watery sound effects. This was the first of attempt in a career of albums designed to elevate the harmonica from hobo's plaything to refined solo instrument.  

Diamond then moved to ABC-Paramount Records who released the albums Exciting Sounds from Romantic Places (1959) and Subliminal Sounds (1960). On these albums, Diamond "played 

all parts on a variety of harmonicas, most of his own design. 

He also mixed in sound effects such as jet noise and bird calls, and experimented with tape mixing methods to produce recordings that rank among the most innovative in exotica.... music that is anything but easy listening."

Frank Sinatra championed Diamond, and as a result he signed to Reprise Records when it was set up in 1960. Diamond released several albums on the label in quick succession in 1961-62: Exciting Sounds of the South Seas, Themes From The Great Foreign Films, Off Shore, and Harmonica Sounds In Country And Western Music. However, by this time "the popular audience had lost what little interest it had in harmonica music".

The harmonica is like the accordion and organ. People either love it or hate it. Unlike even the other "controversial" instruments, however, the harmonica has had very few exponents of real talent and inspiration. The Harmonicats and Leo Diamond each had a few fine moments, but the harmonica itself was not responsible for any musical magic. Although his choice of instrument will always condemn Diamond to the musical margins, his best recordings rate up with Esquivel's in his willingness to introduce startling combinations of sounds and take instruments to their logical limits.

 Some critics have felt though, that Diamond’s arrangements for the harmonica were rather insipid. Yet in composer Pete Pedersen’s opinion, “Leo was very much ahead of his time with the harmonica. 
What he accomplished was the first really organized harmonica music. Few people have ever come up to his level as far as 
harmonica arranging is concerned. According to Richard Hayman, Diamond “got more sounds out of the harmonica than anyone else. He had a sweeter tone. He perfected the idea of vibrato.”

A bona fide workaholic, Diamond was trying to establish a harmonica workshop studio and writing an instruction method at the time of his death in Los Angeles, California, in 1966, aged 51.

(Edited from mainly Wikipedia with help from Harmonicas, Harps, and Heavy Breathers by Kim Field)

Cathy Carr born 28 June 1936

Angelina Helen Catherine Cordovano (June 28, 1936 – November 22, 1988), known professionally as Cathy Carr, was an American pop singer.

She was born in The Bronx and as a young girl, Cordovano made her appearance on the television variety show The Children’s Hour, sponsored by Horn & Hardart (which is a now-defunct food services firm which operated the nation’s first food automats — self-service types of restaurant with just vending machines as chief servers). The company had a chain of restaurants in Philadelphia and New York.

As Cordovano (or Cathy Carr by then) grew up, she was part of the United Service Organizations (USO) where she worked as singer and dancer. She also worked with big band orchestras such as those led by Johnny Dee, Larry Fotine and Sammy Kaye. During 1953 Carr ventured into the recording career and signed a contract with Coral Records. She recorded and released some singles but wasn’t able to achieve any hits.

                              

Carr then jumped to Cincinnati, Ohio-based imprint Fraternity Records in 1955. After three flop singles from Fraternity, she was finally able to notch her first hit — and a big one at that — with 

her rendition of the hit song “Ivory Tower.” It reached #2 on the Billboard pop chart; but big it was, “Ivory Tower” was also to be her only major hit. Carr’s first album, also titled Ivory Tower, was subsequently released. Her second charting Fraternity-released single “Heart Hideaway,” was only a small hit at #67.

TV appearances included American Bandstand, The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beechnut Show and also the Perry Como Show. She also performed in Australia with the Lee Gordons Record Star Parade Show Tour. And according to Mellow Larks member Tommy Hamm’s biography, he was married briefly to Carr in the late 50’s.

In 1959 Carr moved to Roulette Records, where she went on to have other minor hits until 1961 such as “First Anniversary” (#42, pop), “I’m Gonna Change Him” (#63, pop), “Little Sister” (#106, pop) and “Sailor Boy” (#103, pop). Her rendition of Phil Spector’s “To Know Him Is to Love Him” was largely ignored in favour of the original take by the Teddy Bears. Roulette released Carr's only LP for the label, Shy, which featured the songs "I'm Nobody's Baby" and "So Near and Yet So Far."

The growing popularity of rock and roll and beat music made it increasingly harder for traditional pop singers like Carr to gain a decent hit. Aside from that, her affinity towards teenage pop 
(despite her age) and not trying to include more mature songs to her repertoire held her back from growing as an artist.

She recorded briefly for Smash Records in her attempt to record more adult-oriented pop songs, but went back to teenybopper tunes again when she recorded for Laurie Records. Her single there “Sailor Boy,” bubbled under the Hot 100 in 1962. She moved to RCA where she recorded pop standards, before RCA released her last single in 1967.

Carr died from ovarian cancer on November 22, 1988 in Fayetteville, New York, aged 52.

(Scarce information edited mainly from Wikipedia & mentalitch.com)

Rosalie Allen born 27 June 1924

Rosalie Allen (born Julie Marlene Bedra; June 27, 1924 – September 23, 2003) was an American country singer, songwriter, guitarist, columnist and television and radio host who was noted for her yodelling. She was one of the most successful female country singers of the late 1940s. Billed variously as "The Prairie Star" and the "Queen of the Yodellers", she enjoyed a string of hit records, including "Guitar Polka", "Rose of the Alamo" and "Quicksilver", and became a pioneering broadcaster, and was the first woman inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame.

Rosalie Allen was born in Old Forge, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania (some sources give her given birth name as Julia, or Juliana rather than Julie.) Allen grew up the daughter of a Polish immigrant miner in a family of 12 children in Pennsylvania. During the Great Depression, at age nine, she worked as a dishwasher to help with the family's finances. But through those times, she had a strong love for music and learned many a song by radio or playing the records as well as learning the art of yodelling. Allen taught herself to sing and play her brother’s guitar as a child.

Her inspirations included some of the most notable cowgirl singers of the era: Patsy Montana, whose "I Want to be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" sold over a million copies in 1935, and the Girls of the Golden West, a sister act whose unique harmony yodelling had made them major stars of hillbilly radio. In 1939, she was affectionately known as the "Queen of the Hillbillies" as well as "Champion Girl Yodeler of America" and "Queen of the Yodellers" after winning a yodelling contest, and continued to use this moniker throughout her career. The contest's prize was to sing on WBRE in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a performance which was her radio debut. She then headed for York, Pennsylvania, where she worked as the featured vocalist with Shorty Fincher's Prairie Pals.

By 1943 she moved to New York and performed on Denver Darling's Swing Billies pseudo-western radio show. She made her first commercial recordings with Darling, cutting both "Put Your Arms Around Me" and "Don't Wait Too Long to Forgive", on which Darling was billed as Tex Grande, for the local De Luxe label in 1944. That year she became a regular on Zebe Carver's Hill Country Jamboree show, which led to an offer of her own show the same year and was, for a time, the only country DJ in the city. The half-hour program, Prairie Stars on WOV in New York, aired six nights a week and was so popular that Country Music magazine named her the most famous country music personality in Manhattan. The show ran until 1956.

                               

In 1945 Allen signed with RCA Victor, an artist-label association that would result in much of her best work. Her first hit was a reworking of "I Want to Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" and both it and "Guitar Polka" found their way into the upper echelons of  

the country chart in 1946. Allen's vocal pyrotechnics on "He Taught Me How to Yodel" helped to popularise Kenny Roberts's song, and a later association with Elton Britt produced several fine duets including "Quicksilver", "Beyond the Sunset" and "The Yodel Blues" (all 1949) and "Mockin' Bird Hill" (1950).

Allen appeared in the film Village Barn (1949) and that year began a four-year stint as the host of her own television show. She opened New York's first retail outlet devoted to country music called Rosalie Allen's Hillbilly Music Center on West 54th Street in New York City. Her writings of The Rosalie Allen Hillbilly appeared in columns for National Jamboree and Country Sound Roundup.

Teaming up with Elton Britt again the duo also recorded an album for Waldorf Records in the mid-'50s -- now released as Starring Elton Britt and Rosalie Allen on the Grand Award label. She still released a number of albums including Rodeo in 1959. As rock 'n' roll pushed country aside, she moved to Alabama and performed less, even though Patsy Montana urged her to return to the recording studio but she was stopped by a combination of health and marital problems, as well as by disputes with Nashville producers.

Portrait of Shorty Warren, Rosalie Allen, Ernest Tubb, Cy Sweat, Dave Miller, Radio Dot, Smokey Warren, Dick Richards, Minnie Pearl, Bob McCoy, and Smokey Swan, Carnegie Hall, New York, N.Y., Sept. 18-19, 1947

Allen elected to stay home to raise her daughter, except for a few special appearances. At one point she worked as a cook for Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker for whom her son-in-law was a security guard. Her final album was The Queen Of The Yodelers, released in 1983. Her later years were spent with her daughter and son-in-law in the high desert of California, near Palmdale.

In 1999 her work in radio was recognized and she was inducted into the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame. In her later life, she suffered from diabetes and other ailments. After a brief illness with congestive heart failure, Allen died on September 23, 2003 in Van Nuys, California at the age of 79. At the time of her death she used the name Julia Gilbert, with the surname being that of her last husband.

In an article about her radio career, The New York Times in 1946 called Miss Allen ''a rare four-leafed clover in a field that was one of man's last strongholds.'’  (Edited mainly from Wikipedia, AllMusic & The Independent)

Big Bill Broonzy born 26 June 1903

Big Bill Broonzy ( June 26, 1903 – August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter and guitarist.

Big Bill Broonzy was born William Lee Conley Broonzy in Jefferson County, Arkansas. During his childhood, Broonzy's family moved to Pine Bluff to work the fields there. Broonzy learned to play a cigar box fiddle and as a teenager, he played 
violin in local churches, at community dances, and in a country string band. During World War I, Broonzy enlisted in the U.S. Army, and in 1920 he moved to Chicago and worked in the factories for several years.

In 1924 he met Papa Charlie Jackson, a New Orleans native and pioneer blues recording artist for Paramount. Jackson taught Broonzy guitar, and used him as an accompanist. In November 1927 he succeeded in getting his first record, House Rent Stomp, onto Paramount wax. As one of his early records came out with the garbled moniker of Big Bill Broomsley, he decided to shorten his recording name to Big Bill, and this served as his handle on records until after the Second World War Among aliases used for Big Bill on his early releases were Big Bill Johnson, Sammy Sampson, and Slim Hunter.

Broonzy's earliest records do not demonstrate real promise, but this would soon change. In 1930, the Hokum Boys broke up, and Georgia Tom Dorsey decided to keep the act going by bringing in Big Bill and guitarist Frank Brasswell to replace Tampa Red, billing themselves as "the Famous Hokum Boys." With Georgia Tom and Brasswell, Broonzy hit his stride and penned his first great blues original, "I Can't Be Satisfied." This was a hit and helped make his name with record companies. Although only half-a-dozen blues artists made any records during 1932, the worst year in the history of the record business, one of them was Big Bill, who made 20 issued sides that year.

Through Georgia Tom and Tampa Red, Big Bill met Memphis Minnie and toured as her second guitarist in the early '30s. When Broonzy resumed recording in March 1934 it was for Bluebird's newly established Chicago studio under the direction of Lester Melrose. Melrose liked Broonzy's style, and before long, Big Bill would begin working as Melrose's unofficial second-in-command, auditioning artists, matching numbers to performers, booking sessions, and providing backup support to other musicians. He played on literally hundreds of records for Bluebird in the late '30s and into the '40s, including those made by his half-brother, Washboard Sam, Peter Chatman (aka Memphis Slim), John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson, and others.

With Melrose, Broonzy helped develop the "Bluebird beat," connoting a type of popular blues record that incorporated trap drums and upright string bass and helped to redefine the music in a format that would prove popular in the cities. Ironically, while Broonzy was doing all this work for Melrose at Bluebird, his own recordings as singer were primarily made for ARC, and later Columbia's subsidiary Okeh. This was his greatest period, and during this time Broonzy wrote and recorded such songs as "Key to the Highway," and "Unemployment Stomp." All told, Big Bill Broonzy had a hand in creating more than 100 original songs.

                              

When promoter John Hammond sought a traditional blues singer to perform at one of his Spirituals to Swing concerts held at Carnegie Hall in New York City, he was looking for Robert Johnson to foot the bill. Hammond learned that Johnson had recently died, and as a result, Big Bill got the nod to appear at Carnegie Hall on February 
5, 1939. This appearance was very well received, and earned Broonzy a role in George Seldes' 1939 film Swingin' the Dream alongside Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman.

In the early '40s, Big Bill appeared at the Café Society, the Village Vanguard, and the Apollo Theater, in addition to touring with Lil Greenwood, all of which kept Big Bill busy during the AFM recording ban. By the mid- to late '40s, the operation in Chicago with Melrose had finally begun to wind down, just as 

electric blues started to heat up. Big Bill continued to record for labels ranging from majors Columbia and Mercury to fly-by-nights such as Hub and RPM. In 1949, Broonzy decided to take some time off from music, and got a job working as a janitor at the Iowa State University of Science & Technology in Ames.

In 1951 Broonzy was sought out by DJ and writer Studs Terkel and appeared in the latter's concert series I Come for to Sing. Suddenly, Broonzy started to get a lot of press attention, and by September of that year, he was in Paris recording for French Vogue  Broonzy proved incredibly popular, more so than at any time in the United States. Two separate documentary films were made on his life, in France and Belgium, 
respectively, and from 1951 until ill health finally put him out of the running in the fall of 1957, Broonzy nearly doubled his own 1927-1949 output in terms of new recordings.

Broonzy updated his act by adding traditional folk songs to his set. This was the part of his career that Broonzy himself valued most highly, and his latter-day fame and popularity were a just reward for a life spent working so hard on behalf of his given discipline and fellow musicians. It would be a short reward, though; just about the time the autobiography he had written with Yannick Bruynoghe, Big Bill Blues, appeared in 1955, he learned he had throat cancer. 

Big Bill Broonzy died at age 65 in August, 1958, and left a recorded legacy which, in sheer size and depth, well exceeds that of any blues artist born on his side of the year 1900.  (Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia)

The great country blues singer and guitarist Big Bill Broonzy performs "Worried Man Blues," "Hey, Hey" and "How You Want It Done." From the DVD "A Musical Journey: The Films of Pete, Toshi and Dan Seeger."

Johnny Smith born 25 June 1922

Johnny Henry Smith II (June 25, 1922 – June 11, 2013) was an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist. He was universally adored by Jazz guitarists and although he reappeared on the Jazz scene from time-to-time, most of his now-legendary recordings were made in the 1950s.

During the Great Depression, Smith's family moved from Birmingham, Alabama, United States, where Smith was born, 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 orchestra pit of the New York Philharmonic. From Schoenberg to Gershwin to originals, Smith was one of the most versatile guitarists of the 1950s. He was a staff studio guitarist and arranger for NBC from 1946 to 1951. During that period he also served as guitarist for Benny Goodman's orchestra and sextet, after which he played on a freelance basis thereafter until 1958, he played in a variety of settings from solo to full orchestra and had his own trio, The Playboys, with Mort Lindsey and Arlo Hults.

                                

His most critically acclaimed record was Moonlight in Vermont (one of Down Beat magazine's top two jazz records for 1952, featuring saxophonist Stan Getz).His most famous musical composition is the track "Walk Don't Run", written for a 1954 recording session as counter-melody to the chord changes of 

"Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise". Guitarist Chet Atkins covered the track, recording a neo-classical rendition of the song on the electric guitar for his Hi Fi in Focus album which preceded the Ventures' hit by three years..

In 1957, Smith's wife died in childbirth, along with his second child. He sent his young daughter to Colorado Springs, Colorado to be cared for temporarily by his mother, and the following year he left his busy performing career in New York City to join his daughter in Colorado. There, Smith ran a musical instruments store, taught music, and raised his daughter while continuing to record albums for the Royal Roost and Verve labels into the 1960s.

Johnny with Arthur Godfrey

He told The Colorado Springs Independent : "In the end, everything came down to the fact that I loved my daughter too much to let my career put her at risk. But there were other factors, too. I loved New York musically, but I hated living there." He continued to record, and sometimes performed in Colorado nightclubs, but declined almost all invitations to tour. One exception was for Bing Crosby, whom he accompanied on a tour of England in 1977 that ended shortly before Mr. Crosby's death.

Smith retired the guitar in the mid '80s and lived in the same house he bought in 1958. Though retired from playing, Smith was far from forgotten. Awards and accolades continue to come his way. In 1998, the guitarist received the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal, which is awarded annually by the Smithsonian Institution for distinguished cultural contributions in public service, the arts, science or history. In 1999, the JVC Jazz Festival in New York honoured Smith with a gala tribute featuring a pantheon of jazz guitar greats, both veterans and rising stars.

Smith died of complications from a fall at his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, June 11, 2013, at the age of 90.

Guitarist Barney Kessel once said about Smith: "As far as I'm concerned, no one in the world plays the guitar better than he. They might play it differently, but nobody plays better. Johnny could easily overplay because he's got chops unlimited, but his musical taste would not allow him to make an over­statement. As a result, he makes beautiful music." Kessel's comments were indicative of the universal respect that Smith enjoyed among his fellow guitarists. While Smith himself steadfastly maintained that he did not consider himself a jazz player, critics and musicians alike continue to hail him as a giant among the jazz guitar elite.   (Edited from Wikipedia and jazzprofiles)

Here’s a rare clip of legendary guitarist Johnny Smith at a gig in Mobile Alabama in 1984. (Thanks to Bob Hardy @ YouTube)