Lloyd SmithWoodwind jazz musician and influential instructorBirth: May 28, 1914? Death: April 8, 1999 Birthplace: Lexington, KY Date of Interview: February 24, 1982 (Narrator's Home) March 10, 1982 (SIUE) Interviewers: W. Deane Wiley (2/24/82) Dan Havens(3/10/82) |
Lloyd Smith graduated from Sumner High School and continued advanced music studies. He performed with Fate Marable, Charles Creath and Dewey Jackson on the riverboats and with Eddie Johnson's Crackerjacks. He distinguished himself as lead alto saxophonist and flutist with Earl Hines' Orchestra and substituted for Johnny Hodges in Duke Ellington's Orchestra in 1947. Mr. Smith also operated his own music studio. Among his students were his sons, Dwayne and Dwight Bosman, the popular Bosman Twins of St. Louis. Other notable students were John Coltrane, Chad Evans, Gerald DeClue, and Hammiet Blewett. In 1997, a tribute to Lloyd Smith was held; it was attended by more than 700 people.
This is the table of contents for the interview of Lloyd Smith. It is part of the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive which is located in Lovejoy Library at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
For a complete contents list of all musician interviews for the oral history project, please click on this link: Oral History and Research Materials.
If interested in reviewing these materials from the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive, please contact Therese Dickman, Fine Arts Librarian.
Tape # Side |
Time |
Subject |
1 a |
021-046 |
Birth, Date & Place; Family; Start in Music
|
1 a |
047-059 |
Music lessons; violin
|
1 a |
060-102 |
Move to St. Louis; Parents
|
1 a |
103-126 |
Interest in saxophone; first lessons
|
1 a |
127-164 |
hearing Louis Armstrong and other musicians
|
1 a |
165-189 |
Junior High Band; Summer High School
|
1 a |
190-204 |
First paying job - high school
|
1 a |
205-230 |
Professional jobs; Musicians
|
1 a |
231-240 |
Watermelon Barbecue
|
1 a |
241-315 |
Joins Musicians union; union troubles
|
1 a |
316-324 |
First "named" bands; Johnny White Mose Wiley
|
1 a |
325-384 |
Rube Floyd Band; musicians, pay, hours, traveling
|
1 a |
385-425 |
Eddie Randle and His Seven Blue Devils
|
1 a |
426-449 |
Eddie Johnson Band
|
1 a |
450-466 |
Reading music
|
1 a |
467-476 |
Eddie Johnson
|
1 a |
477-488 |
Jeter-Pillars; George Hudson
|
1 a |
498-513 |
Chicago train excursion
|
1 a |
514-534 |
Eddie Johnson Band; travel
|
1 a |
535-553 |
Racial prejudice
|
1 a |
554-589 |
Dress, pay, means of travel
|
1 a |
590-605 |
George Hudson Band
|
1 a |
606-648 |
River boats; Fate Marable Band; New Orleans
|
1 a |
649-674 |
Blues Singers; other bands
|
1 a |
675-683 |
Marable as a musician and a leader
|
1 a |
684-703 |
Charlie Creath; Dewey Jackson
|
1 a |
704-719 |
Personnel - marriages and bands
|
1 a |
720-750 |
White musicians and bands |
1 b |
005-020 |
George Hudson Band
|
1 b |
021-249 |
Earl Hines Band - traveling, recording, instruments, pay, Hines as leader, discoverer of talent; band members
|
1 b |
250-279 |
Leaves Hines; St. Louis - Musicians Club
|
1 b |
280-304 |
"May Tatum" Beverly White
|
1 b |
305-329 |
Close Musicians club; work for Colonial Bakery & Union
|
1 b |
330-359 |
NOT TRANSCRIBED - discuss Jazz Archive and collection
|
1 b |
360-400 |
St. Louis Symphony; playing now
|
1 b |
401-425 |
Teaching music; looking at memorabilia
|
1 b |
426-453 |
Armstrong and other musicians Smith knew
|
1 b |
454-460 |
Drug use by musicians
|
1 b |
461-499 |
Mrs. Smith
|
1 b |
500-550 |
Types of jazz; definition of "Dixieland"
|
1 b |
551-603 |
Chicago Symphony; Hines now; Effects of depression
|
1 b |
604-639 |
Prejudice; treatment of black musicians
|
1 b |
640-658 |
Grandparents; ancestors
|
1 b |
659-713 |
Best bands, Basie, Lunceford
|
1 b |
714-722 |
Teaching; Hudson, oral history project
|
1 b |
732-end |
Blank |
2 a |
004-134 |
First professional job; Rube Floyd
|
2 a |
135-206 |
Theaters, talking pictures, dances, types of music
|
2 a |
207-286 |
Eddie Randle Band; instruments, musicians, tunes
|
2 a |
287-348 |
Jimmy Blanton - influence; Wendell Marshall
|
2 a |
349-381 |
Randle Band
|
2 a |
382-439 |
Eddie Johnson Crackerjack Band
|
2 a |
440-484 |
Jeter-Pillars; George Hudson
|
2 a |
485-545 |
Crackerjack Band, personnel; Fats Waller
|
2 a |
546-575 |
Benny Washington, Cab Calloway, Don Stovall
|
2 a |
576-601 |
Dewey Jackson Band, Riverboats, and New Orleans
|
2 a |
602-629 |
Singleton Palmer; Jackson as a leader
|
2 a |
630-655 |
Alphonso Trent; Charlie Creath
|
2 a |
656-688 |
Hawaiian Social Club excursions to Chicago: Jessie Johnson
|
2 a |
689-723 |
Ballroom jobs in South; New Orleans, boats
|
2 a |
724-753 |
Recording, show work; substitute with Ellington |
2 b |
003-149 |
Earl Hines as leader
|
2 b |
150-213 |
West Coast and Canada with Hines
|
2 b |
214-257 |
Stevens Point, Wisconsin
|
2 b |
258-297 |
Big stars Smith worked behind, Sinatra, Harry James, etc.
|
2 b |
298-331 |
Detroit, Graystone Ballroom, Jean Goldkette
|
2 b |
332-353 |
Recording with Hines, Hines as discoverer of talent
|
2 b |
354-417 |
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie; Drugs in music Business
|
2 b |
418-431 |
Female musicians
|
2 b |
432-479 |
Wilbur Kirk; evaluation of drummers
|
2 b |
480-499 |
Various instruments with Hines; Gillespie; Clark Terry
|
2 b |
500-540 |
Ellington band
|
2 b |
541-589 |
Lunceford, Basie Kenton - changes in big bands
|
2 b |
590-670 |
St. Louis Bands; Cecil Scott, Fate Marable
|
2 b |
671-709 |
Music heard as a youngster
|
2 b |
710-722 |
Lessons, training, practicing, other bands
|
2 b |
723-750 |
Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Rochelle, Lucky Millender |
3 a |
012-052 |
New York City; comparison of musicians
|
3 a |
053-089 |
Theater Acts
|
3 a |
090-130 |
Havens with Buck & Bubbles (actually Butterbeans & Susie)
|
3 a |
131-204 |
Lena Horne, other singers
|
3 a |
205-277 |
Leaving Hines band; Starting Musicians Club
|
3 a |
278-301 |
Gas Light Square, G Clef Club
|
3 a |
302-330 |
Leaving Hines Band, other musicians
|
3 a |
331-354 |
Effects of formal education on musicians
|
3 a |
355-370 |
Smith's music collection and equipment
|
3 a |
371-408 |
Mixed bands; prejudice
|
3 a |
409-500 |
Gangsters, prostitutes
|
3 a |
501-547 |
"May Tatum", Beverly White
|
3 a |
548-559 |
Teddy Wilson; "carving sessions"
|
3 a |
560-624 |
Musicians unions
|
3 a |
625-659 |
Black - white relations; Prejudice
|
3 a |
660-712 |
Movie work with Hines ; arrangements, musicians
|
3 a |
713-740 |
Arranging, demise of shows and vaudeville
|
3 a |
741-749 |
Louis Jordan
|
3 b |
002-039 |
Ahmad Jamal. stage names, nicknames
|
3 b |
040-089 |
King Cole
|
3 b |
090-151 |
Types of instruments, sound
|
3 b |
152-186 |
Young musicians
|
3 b |
187-216 |
NOT TRANSCRIBED
|
3 b |
217-424 |
Music training, environment, college programs, teaching of music
|
3 b |
425-506 |
Earl Warren, Trummy Young, various clarinet players |
E-mail comments and inquiries about the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive to Therese Dickman at tdickma@siue.edu or call 618-650-2695.