Allen Smith
Frederick Allen Smith Sr. (born August 11, 1925 in Midland , Pennsylvania , † February 3, 2011 in San Francisco ) was an American jazz trumpeter who was a long-time member of the jazz scene in San Francisco.
Live and act
Allen Smith came from a family of musicians; his father was a choir director and his mother a piano teacher. During World War II, he served in the US Navy in Honolulu , where he was a member of the Hellcats Navyband. After the war he settled in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended San Francisco State College ; his schoolmates were Paul Desmond and Cal Tjader , with whom he later worked in various line-ups. In his career he was mainly active in the jazz clubs of the Bay Area, u. a. with guitarist Eddie Duran. In the late 1940s he was involved in breaking the racial barriers in the city's clubs. He has performed frequently at the Fillmore Club and Jimbo's Bop City , a. a. with Vernon Alley and Earl Watkins . He was also one of the earliest musicians in the short-lived Blanco's Cotton Club on O'Farrell Street, which was the first racial segregation club in town.
Although he appeared all his life as a musician, he worked as a teacher and later as headmaster of the Junipero Serra School after earning a master's degree in education. Smith accompanied u. a. Frank Sinatra , Sammy Davis Jr. , Tony Bennett, and Ella Fitzgerald (1969) performing in the Bay Area; he also played with Benny Goodman and Gil Evans ( Great Jazz Standards 1959). He has also participated in recordings with the Duke Ellington Orchestra (1965), Cal Tjader ( Extremes ), Flip Phillips ( Keep on Flippin ' , 1953), Hubert Laws and singer Jackie Ryan (2003).
After his retirement he devoted himself entirely to music, supporting local artists such as Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers and the singer Kim Nalley. It was not until 1998 that he presented his only album under his own name. From 1996 to 2001 he made several guest appearances in Vienna's Jazzland at the invitation of Elly Wright and Art Farmer .
He died of senile dementia in February 2011 at the age of 85 in a San Francisco nursing home.
Web links / sources
Individual evidence
- ^ Prestige Records catalog at Jazzdisco.org
- ^ Ellington Discography 1965
- ^ Clef Records catalog at Jazzdisco.org
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Smith, Allen |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Smith, Frederick Allen senior (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz trumpeter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 11, 1925 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Midland, Pennsylvania |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 3, 2011 |
| Place of death | San Francisco |