 A Remembrance And A Fond Farewell To Allen Smith by Lavay Smith & Chris Siebert San Francisco, California February 7, 2011 With a deep sadness, we say goodbye to our long-time trumpet player, mentor, and friend, Allen Smith. Allen passed away peacefully on Thursday, February 3rd at the age of 85. We are heart-broken but take solace in the many wonderful memories of a life well-lived and the joyous music that emanated from his golden horn. Allen had stopped playing in December of 2009, after breakig his hip while visiting his daughter in Vienna, Austria. He suffered from dementia, and had been living in a small group home near Redwood City for the past year after retiring from music. His family had moved him to the VA hospital just over a week ago. Vince Cattolica first told us about Allen in the early 90s, and we first heard Allen play around 1994. We were in awe of his musicianship, and intimidated to ask him to perform with us. We finally got up the nerve, and he did his first gigs with us in December of 1995 at a jazz festival near Palm Springs, CA. Allen performed with our group for the next 14 years, and raised the level of the band on every gig he did. We were lucky that he recorded with us on our last two albums, to which he contributed immeasurably in terms of lead trumpet, section work, phrasing and many wonderful solos. It is amazing to think that Allen toured to Japan with us three times, to Greece (along with his lovely wife Julie) and across the United States, all while in his 70s and 80s! This was in addition to hundreds of gigs we played together in the Bay Area, at the Top Of The Mark, the Cafe du Nord, Biscuits & Blues, Enrico's and many appearances at festivals and concerts, including numerous shows for the San Francisco Jazz Festival. Allen performed with us right up until he retired at age 84, and he looked forward to playing every show. What an inspiration! His last gig was at Enrico's, where we played together for years every Monday. Allen's lovely family were almost always in the house on Mondays, and they enriched our lives as well, and became part of our band's family. It is this beautiful family that is Allen's greatest legacy, above and beyond his vast musical contributions. You'll never meet a cooler crew than his wife Julie, his children Tony (a professional drummer), Peter, Rick and Jenny, and his grandchildren Matthew, Isabelle, Josef, Christina, Stephanie and Elizabeth. Allen is also survived by his brother Wayne, who made a career as a singer and guitar player. It would take a book to chronicle the life of Allen Smith. Rather than ask him "who did you play with?", a safer question would have been "who DIDN"T you play with?". Allen was the top call for years because of his unique abilities: he was a great reader who could play lead in bands large and small, but he could also solo in a soulful style that was exciting, and always relaxed. And when he went to New York to test his own mettle, he was in demand by the top artists there as well. It's a cliche to say that a good musician speaks through his instrument, but Allen really did seem to talk through his horn, in that soulful, playful, sassy way that we all loved so much. We've never heard anybody shape notes like him, with each dip and scoop having meaning within the musical conversation. It was like hearing a good friend tell a great story every night. Sometimes when we hear Harry "Sweets" Edison, Joe Newman, and certainly his hero Dizzy Gillespie, we're reminded of where Allen came from. But he was their peer and had his own take on the classic trumpet styles. When playing arrangements, Allen had an inimitable way of bringing the notes on a piece paper to life. When he led our horn section, everybody swung harder, and the music breathed and glowed with expression. He knew exactly which notes to play short or long, which notes to emphasize, which notes to ghost, and which notes to gliss up to or slide off of. And he was always right! Where did this master, mentor and leader of horn sections come from? Allen was born in and raised in Midland, PA, a small steel town south of Pittsburgh. He remembered his upbringing in this ethnically diverse town with fondness. Music was all around him. His father directed a church choir, and his mother was a piano teacher. Allen's cousin was a top trumpet player in Pittsburgh who played with some of the national big bands, including, we seem to remember, Fletcher Henderson. Allen grew up in the swing era, and spoke that language, but he really came of age during the bebop era. He loved the big bands, including Basie and Ellington, of course, as well as Jimmie Lunceford and Erskine Hawkins. But when Dizzy Gillespie introduced a whole new jazz language on the trumpet, Allen took notice and absorbed the revolutionary sounds of bebop. During World War II, Allen served in the Navy at Barber's Point Naval Air Station in Honolulu, Hawaii and was a member of the legendary Hellcats Navy band. After training at the Great Lakes Naval Station, Allen had replaced Clark Terry, who managed to stay in the Chicago area in order to play gigs. Allen became part of a world-class musical organization that included Osie Johnson on drums. After the war, Allen moved to San Francisco. His good buddy Vernon Alley showed him around and introduced to musicians, venues and gigs. He soon became an integral part of the great San Francisco jazz scene in the Fillmore district and beyond. Allen studied at San Francisco State along with future jazz greats Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond and Cal Tjader. It was also at San Francisco State that Allen met Rudy Salvini, whose big band he performed with for over 50 years (a band where he influenced countless musicians including great trumpet players like John Worley). In addition to music, he pursued a career as a school teacher, eventually becoming a principal in the San Francisco Unified School District. In addition to his work in the jazz world, Allen played with blues giants T-Bone Walker, Saunders King and Johnny Otis, with whom he toured in 1947, and Bay Area Mambo great Merced Gallegos. In the early 1950s, he played with Benny Carter in Las Vegas. In 1958, Allen decided to take a break from teaching and try his luck in New York City. His talent, as well as his connections with Bay Area friends like Jerry Dodgion, Jerome Richardson and Richard Wyands resulted in lots of work, including shows in theaters as well as jazz gigs. It was in this period that Allen recorded with Gil Evans and toured with Quincy Jones and Benny Goodman. Allen recorded with Duke Ellington in the early 1965 which he was justifiably proud of. But even Allen couldn't remember all of the greats that he worked with, not to mention those he jammed with in the days of Jimbo's Bop City and all of the other great clubs in San Francisco. A short list would include Duke Ellington, Benny Carter (including several tours to Japan), Gil Evans, Quincy Jones, Benny Goodman, Gerald Wilson, Cal Tjader, as well as singers Ella Fitzgerald, Nat "King" Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Joe Williams, Sammy Davis, Jr., Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Allen backed many of these artists as the major soloist with the Ernie Heckscher Orcehstra in the Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel. He played with countless touring headliners, including, memorably for his children, the Jackson 5 in their heyday in the early 70s. A partial discography includes the following albums, most of which are available on CD: 1949 Saunders King-The Chronological Saunders King, 1948-1954 (Classics) 1952 Flip Phillips-Vol. 3: Keep On Flippin' (Ocium) (originally on Verve) 1958 Benny Goodman-The Yale University Archives, Vols. 1 & 2 (Nimbus) 1959 Gil Evans-Great Jazz Standards (Pacific Jazz) 1965 Duke Ellington-The Private Collection, Vol. 8 (Saja) 1969 Ella Fitzgerald-Sunshine Of Your Love (MPS) 1977 Cal Tjader-Extremes (Fantasy) 1996 Charles Brown-So Goes Love (Verve) He contributed to countless albums by Bay Area greats including Kim Nalley, Paula West, Jackie Ryan, Tee Carson and Larry Vuckovich. He also recorded a wonderful CD under his own name, "Cornocopia" featuring Larry Vuckovich, Jeff Chambers and Omar Clay on BluePort Records. In addition to his musical artistry, which was in a class by itself, Allen also epitomized an old school professionalism that was equally inspirational. He had mastered the craft of music, but also the profession of music. He was always early to the gig, alsways dressed impeccably, and, as Bill Ortiz can attest, always carried a pencil! He expected the same of everyone else, and made us all more professional. In 14 years and hundreds of gigs, we never heard him criticize another musician. Indeed, he believed that good musicians were secure in their accomplishments and didn't need to put others down in order to get ahead. If Allen liked your playing, that was the gold seal. A simple "he's a good player" was high praise from Allen, and he always meant it when he said it. Allen gave all of us younger players a probation period. He came into our band adoring his peers, Bill Stewart, Jules Brousard, Ron Stallings, Danny Armstrong and Sly Randolph, but he wanted to let the younger cats know that his standards were high and he expected the same of them. The times when he'd turn around and say "hey man, you sound good" in that scratchy voice to Darrell, Howard, Dayna, Charlie, David, etc. proved that they had earned his admiration. He really loved the band and all of the cats in it, and wanted to make us all sound better. His advice on phrasing was priceless, and we think about it all the time. Allen was part of a group of veteran musicians who have formed the core of our band since 1990. He loved being part of a group that included so many of his peers, and, eventually, some very talented young whipper-snappers as well. Because of Allen, as well as Vince Cattolica, Bill Stewart, Hal Stein, Jules Broussard, Herman Riley, Omar Clay and youngsters Danny Armstrong, Ron Stallings and Sly Randolph, our band became a school of sorts. Younger musicians like Bill Ortiz, Mike Olmos, Marty Wehner, Robert Stewart, Howard Wiley, Charles McNeal, Dayna Stevens, Charlie Siebert, David Ewell, Marcus Shelby, Ron Belcher, Darrell Green and many others, ourselves above all, got to learn from the generation of musicians who came of age during the swing and bebop eras. The interaction of these generations of musicians was so much fun, and it was often the first thing that people would ask about when we were on tour. The age range on some gigs went from 20 to 78. It was an incomparable experience that will sadly never happen again, at least not that way. An era has passed, and Allen was one of the greats from that era. It's hard to express how grateful we are to Allen and the rest of these wonderful musicians for this opportunity. It's a vast understatement to say that it changed our lives completely. Sadly, when you hire veteran musicians and have a lot of older friends, you see a lot of death earlier in life than many other folks. We have lost Vince, Bill, Herman, Hal, Omar, Ron Stallings, and now Allen. This is wrenching, but somehow you take comfort in the glorious gift of musical wisdom that could only have come from the vast experience that these masters gained in the golden age of American music. And you feel grateful that you were lucky enough to have the honor and privilege of calling such soulful people your friends. For 14 years, Allen Smith played his tail off, raised the level of music on the bandstand and taught us a hell of a lot about music and life. Allen was one of our primary teachers and mentors, and our lives are much richer for the experience. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with one of the all-time great trumpet players and musicians. His vast experience and wisdom influenced several generations of musicians in our band, in the San Francisco Bay Area, and beyond. There is a notice from the San Francisco Chronicle here: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?%3Fn=allen-smith&pid=148359564 We hope that this is just the beginning of the stories and tributes to Allen. This facebook group is a place for all of us to share our memories in words and photos. Rest in peace, Dr. Smith. We miss you already. Lavay Smith & Chris Siebert San Francisco, California February 7, 2011 |
