Brian Smith (musician)

Brian Smith (born January 3, 1939 in Wellington ) is a New Zealand jazz musician ( tenor and alto saxophone , flutes , also clarinet ).

Live and act

Brian Smith began as a musician in 1958 in Auckland , where he played as a tenor saxophonist with local bands and with foreign musicians who were touring. After a stay in Australia he went to London in 1964, where he first worked with Humphrey Lyttelton and Alexis Korner , but also with T-Bone Walker , Alan Price , Annie Ross , Bing Crosby , Mark Murphy , Jon Hendricks , John Dankworth , Gordon Beck and Tubby Hayes played. As a studio musician, he worked for The Small Faces , Donovan , Sandie Shaw and Lulu .

In 1969 he became a member of Maynard Ferguson's band , in which he went on tour until 1975 and was involved in recordings. At the same time he was involved in the founding of Ian Carr's fusion band Nucleus , with whom he appeared at the festivals in Montreux and Newport and on extensive tours in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Apart from two interruptions, he was with Nucleus until 1982 and is involved in ten of the band's albums. He has also worked for Mike Gibbs , Keith Tippett , Nancy Wilson , Eartha Kitt , Dusty Springfield , Bobby Shew and John Scofield .

Smith returned to New Zealand in 1982, where he remained active as a musician. He worked with his own quartet and trio, in the band of drummer Frank Gibson ( Space Case ) and with Beaver Morrison , but also as a teacher and studio musician. His album Southern Excursion (with Geoff Castle , 1982) was named "Album of the Year" there. His two albums Moonlight Sax (1990) and Moonlight Sax 2 (1991) were very successful in New Zealand, where they topped the charts and even reached platinum status .

Smith, who lives with his wife Irene in Whangaparaoa , also writes television and film music ("Came a Hot Friday", "Shaker Run", "Gloss", "Plainclothes", "Frontline"). In 2008 he toured with Georgie Fame .

Lexigraphic entries

• Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz music. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584-X .

Web links

• Works by Brian Smith in the catalog of the German National Library
• Brian Smith website