Bill Smith (clarinetist)

William Overton "Bill" Smith (born September 22, 1926 in Sacramento , † February 29, 2020 in Seattle ) was an American ( jazz ) clarinetist and composer (especially cool jazz , third stream ). He was one of the first clarinetists to develop multiphonics on the clarinet.

Live and act

Smith grew up in Oakland and learned the clarinet at the age of ten (modeled on Benny Goodman ), played in a dance band as a teenager from the age of thirteen (based on the model of Stan Kenton ) and played in a classical youth orchestra in high school ( Oakland Symphony). He studied composition at the Juilliard School (while simultaneously playing in jazz clubs on 52nd Street jazz) and then at Mills College in Oakland (with Darius Milhaud ) with a master's degree in music in 1951. In addition to Milhaud, Roger Sessions was also one of his teachers .

At Mills College Dave Brubeck was his fellow student, with whom he formed an octet and played and recorded as a student from 1947 to 1951. He then taught at the University of Southern California . After graduating from Mills College, he won the Prix ​​de Paris , which enabled him to spend two years at the Paris Conservatory. Winning the Prix ​​de Rome in 1957 enabled him to spend a year in Rome, where he developed advanced playing techniques for the clarinet (Smith multiphonics) after hearing Severino Gazzelloni's similar work on the flute. In 1957/58 he recorded his composition Concerto for Clarinet and Combo with Shelly Manne and his composition Divertimento with Red Norvo in Los Angeles . He also played several times between 1959 and 1961 with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, where he stood in for Paul Desmond . Smith also composed for Brubeck, for example for the joint album Near Myth . As early as 1947 he recorded his composition Schizophrenic Scherzo with Brubeck's octet , one of the earliest third-stream compositions.

Smith was one of the earliest performers to use multiphonics as a new means of sound for the clarinet. His chamber music works from the early 1960s made use of these techniques (and recorded them carefully). As an interpreter, he presented a number of works by other composts that used these sound characteristics, for example in John Eaton's Concert Music for Solo Clarinet , Gunther Schuller's Episodes , Larry Austin's Current for Clarinet and Piano , Pauline Oliveros ' The Wheel of Fortune or Luigi Nono's A Floresta é Jovem e Cheja de Vida . He won a Guggenheim grant in 1960, after which he spent 1960 to 1966 mainly in Rome.

Smith founded the American Jazz Ensemble with John Eaton , with whom he toured and made recordings in Europe and the USA. Together they performed a composition for pre-produced tape and jazz combo and presented the early synthesizer Synket developed by Paul Ketoff . He is also on the LP Americans in Europe , Volume 1 ( Impulse ! , a recording from a SWF concert in Koblenz, initiated by Joachim Ernst Berendt ) from 1963 with his Bill Smith Quintet , in which Herb Geller , Jimmy Gourley (g) , Joe Harris (dr) and Bob Carter (b) played to hear where he presented bop-oriented music. His collaboration with Brubeck also continued in the 1960s. He recorded his third-stream composition Concerto for Jazz soloist and Orchestra with the Orchestra USA in the 1960s. In 1965 Elias Gistelinck dedicated his Five Portraits for clarinet solo to him .

From 1966 he headed the Contemporary Music Group at the University of Washington in Seattle. He led the group partially with trombonist Stuart Dempster until his partial retirement in the 1990s. In 1981 he recorded with Enrico Pieranunzi and in the first half of the 1980s he worked again with Dave Brubeck.

He also composed classical music (with elements of jazz) under the name William O. Smith.

Smith also taught at Berkeley University. In 1964 he received the Artist deserving against recognition award from the Down Beat Critics Polls.

Works

• Concerto for Clarinet and Combo (recorded with Shelly Manne )
• Schizophrenic Scherzo , for clarinet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, trumpet, and trombone (1947)
• Concerto for trombone and chamber orchestra (1959)
• Five Pieces for Solo Clarinet (1959)
• Duo, for clarinet and tape (1960)
• Five Pieces, for flute and clarinet (1961)
• Concerto for Jazz Soloist and Orchestra (1962)
• Variants , for solo clarinet (1963)
• Mosaic , for clarinet and piano (1964)
• Random Suite , for clarinet and tape (1965)
• Elegy for Eric (1966)
• Quadri , for jazz ensemble and orchestra (1968)
• Chronos , for string quartet (1975)
• Five , for brass quintet (1976)
• Five Fragments , for double clarinet (1977)
• Intermission , for soprano, SATB choir, and various instruments (1978)
• Musing , for 3 clarinets and optional dancers (1983)
• Illuminated Manuscript , for wind quintet and computer graphics (1987)
• Jazz Set , for violin and wind quintet (1991)
• Epitaphs , for double clarinet (1993)
• Ritual , for double clarinet (two clarinets, one player), tape, and projections (1993)
• Soli , for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello (1993)
• Five Pages , for 2 clarinets and computer (1994)
• Duet in Two Tempos , for 2 clarinets (1996)
• Explorations , for clarinet and chamber orchestra (1998)

Discography

Recordings under your own name

• 1958 String Quartet / Capriccio for Violin & Piano / Suite for Violin & Clarinet (Stereo Records)
• 1961 Folk Jazz (Contemporary), with Jim Hall , Monty Budwig , Shelly Manne
• 1961 Dave Brubeck / Bill Smith Near Myth (Fantasy)
• 1962 The American Jazz Ensemble in Rome: New Sounds Old World (RCA Victor)
• 1963 Four Chamber Works (Contemporary)
• 1963 The American Jazz Ensemble: New Dimensions (Epic), with John Eaton , Richard Davis, Paul Motian
• 1963 Americans in Europe Vol. 1 (Impulse!), Compilation, a. a. with Bill Smith Quintet (with Herb Geller , Jimmy Gourley , Bob Carter , Joe Harris )
• 1974 Two Sides of Bill Smith (Composers Recordings Inc.), u. a. with Eric Dolphy , Richard Davis , Mel Lewis
• 1977 Sonorities (CRI), with Richard Suderberg , Enrico Pieranunzi , Giovanni Tommaso , Pepito Pignatelli
• 1977 Milton Babbitt / Leslie Bassett / William O. Smith / Charles Wuorinen New Music for Virtuosos ( New World )
• 1977 Grand Duo Concertant, Op. 48 / Five Pieces (For Clarinet Alone) / Six German Songs, Op. 103 with Carl Maria von Weber, Louis Spohr, Melvin Warner, Allan Dameron, Diane Ragains (Crystal)
• 1978 Colors (Edi-Pan), with Enrico Pieranunzi, Bruno Tommaso , Roberto Gatto
• 1996 Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet plays William O. Smith (b. 1926) and Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) (Musical Heritage Society)
• 1998 New Music for Virtuosos with Leslie Bassett, Ralph Shapey, Harvey Sollberger, Robert Erickson, Andrew Imbrie, Robert Hall Lewis, Robert Morris (New World)
• 2001 Solo Music (Ravenna Editions)
• 2004 Bill Smith Meets Gianmarco Lanza (Helikonia)
• 2005 Bill Smith & Gianmarco Lanza Concert for Mirella (Mox Jazz)
• 2013 Christian Asplund, John Butcher , Stuart Dempster, Malcolm Goldstein , Steve Ricks, LaDonna Smith , William O. Smith The Laycock Duos (Comprovise)

Recordings as a sideman

With Dave Brubeck

• The Dave Brubeck Octet (Fantasy OJC, 1950)
• The Riddle (1960)
• Brubeck à la mode (Columbia, 1960)
• Concord on a Summer Night (Concord, 1982)
• Moscow Night (Concord, 1988)
• Once When I Was Very Young (1991)

With Harold Farberman , Gunther Schuller

• Dedicated to Dolphy (Cambridge, 1966)

With Barney Kessel

• Barney Kessel Plays Carmen (Contemporary, 1959)

With Karin Krog

• NDR Jazz Workshop '67: Eleven Around Karin (1967)

With Shelly Manne

• Concerto for Clarinet & Combo (Contemporary, 1957)

With the NDR workshop

• NDR Jazz Workshop - '66 (1966)

With Luigi Nono

• A Floresta é Jovem e Cheja de Vida ( Harmonia Mundi , 1977)
• Voices of Protest (Mode, 2000)

With Red Norvo

• Music to Listen to Red Norvo By (Contemporary, 1957)

With Armando Trovajoli

• The Beat Generation (RCA, 1960)

Lexical entry

• Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
• The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 1996

Web links

• William O. Smith at 90
• Peter Monaghan: Bill Smith, fifty years of innovation, University of Washington, Earshot Jazz 1996
• biography
• Old Masters: Two Musical Worlds Of Clarinetist Bill Smith (Interview 2015)
• Steve Smith: Bill Smith, Master of Two Musical Worlds, Is Dead at 93. The New York Times, March 3, 2020, accessed March 21, 2020 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Paul de Barros: Bill Smith, world-renowned clarinetist, composer and founding member of Dave Brubeck Octet, dies at 93rd Seattle Times, March 10, 2020, accessed on March 12, 2020 . 
2. ^ Remembering Jazz Legend Bill Smith. Divine Art Records, March 6, 2020, accessed March 7, 2020 . 
3. ↑ In total he received two Guggenheim grants