One of the all-time greats will be performing at The
Old School House Arts Centre for Music on Sunday, October 30. Jazz clarinetist
Bill Smith will be performing with Ron Hadley on piano, Rick Kilburn on bass
and Dan Brubeck on drums. Smith is unquestionably one of the greatest
clarinetists of all time. He has successfully bridged the gap between the
classical and the jazz worlds.
As William O. Smith, he has established
himself as one of the world’s finest contemporary composers. He has been a
Professor of Music at the University of Washington since 1966. Throughout his
academic career he has always found time to continue his jazz performances,
with such luminaries as Shelley Manne, Branford Marsalis, Jim Hall, Mel Lewis,
Buddy Collette, Buddy DeFranco, Paul Desmond, Red Norvo, Red Mitchell, Kenny
Clarke and Barney Kessell.
Smith was an original member of the Dave Brubeck Octet
that worked the Bay Area, beginning in 1947, and with which Brubeck began one
of the most successful careers in West Coast jazz. Over the years he has
maintained a close friendship with Brubeck and performed all over the world as
a featured soloist with the famous Dave Brubeck Quartet.
Smith’s life in jazz began at age 10.
A traveling salesman came to his
family’s door in Oakland.
That salesman said to his mother, “You
can’t afford to pass up this opportunity. If your boy takes 24 lessons I’ll
give him a free clarinet.” Young Bill Smith got his clarinet.
He said, “My hero through most of my youth was Benny Goodman.”
Of course, the King of Swing played both jazz and classical music. Hearing his jazz
playing at age 13, he started a dance band and went pro. Sort of. For $8 to
$12, his eight-piece combo played Elks clubs and the like. His dual,
jazz-classics life began in earnest when, at 15, he joined the Oakland
Symphony. But jazz took precedence over school. He began his dreamed-of life on
the road with a dance band.
“I found out pretty quick that I didn’t like it,” he
admitted.
So, heeding a colleague’s advice to get schooling, he
saved $1,000, quit when the band reached the east coast, and entered the Juilliard School of Music.
While studying composition there by day, he had a regular spot with a jazz trio
on 52nd Street, the stronghold of bebop in the 1940s.
Smith said he found its faculty reactionary. So, when
he heard some pieces by Darius Milhaud and discovered the French composer was teaching
composition at Mills College, back in Oakland, he headed home. Playing and
hanging out with another of Milhaud’s students, Brubeck, took care of Smith’s
jazz inclinations.
Soon after graduating, Smith won the Prix de Paris,
which took him to the Paris Conservatory for two years. He later would win the
Prix de Rome (1957) and two Guggenheim Fellowships. Smith is now based in
Seattle and continues to write, perform and record throughout the world.
Music lovers will get to hear the legend on Sun., Oct.
30 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at The Old School House Arts Centre, 122 Fern Road
West, in Qualicum Beach. Admission is $16.
For details, phone 250-752-6133 or visit
www.theoldschoolhouse.org. -
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