Jabbo Smith day in Milwaukee

From Chris Albertson's liner notes for Hot Jazz In The Twenties (Biograph BCD 151 & 152):

"In 1961, when I was working for Riverside Records, someone in Milwaukee sent us two reels of tape containing a recent live performance by Jabbo Smith. We were amazed, because -for reasons to which I can find no logic- we assumed that Jabbo had long been dead. In an era of stereo LPs, FM, jet aircraft, post-bop, and nuclear power, Jabbo's 78 rpm discs seemed downright historical, and he -though actually still in his fifties- was, in our minds, "legendary". The truth was that Jabbo had worked and appeared as a sideman on relatively obscure recording sessions during the Thirties, and remained active into the Fifties. The 1961 tapes captured a "comeback" concert sponsored by the Milwaukee Jazz Society, but it failed to get Jabbo into the national spotlight. They were crudely recorded, but Jabbo's work was still impressive. Bil Grauer, the force behind Riverside, was delighted and wanted to see Jabbo continue his career on the label, but that project somehow fell through, so Jabbo Smith remained a local Wisconsin attraction for another 20 years, or so."

To my knowledge, those tapes were never published but other "hidden treasures" from that same year did finally see the light of day: the June 3 and October 15, 1961 recording sessions promoted by guitarist Marty Grosz (Jazz Art TR520699 & TR520700).

Being a Milwaukee resident for several decades, Jabbo Smith got quite a few hommages in his adoptive hometown. In June 1977, he was honored as "a living jazz immortal" at the 4th annual Unlimited Jazz Ltd. Festival on the Memorial Center promenade. The music was provided by some local jazz musicians, and Jabbo refused to play. "How's the lip?," someone asked. "You know," Jabbo shrugged, smiling.

This article was published in the Milwaukee Sentinel on June 27, 1977:

Clark Terry on Jabbo Smith

"I feel extremely privileged and honored to be on the same planet with Jabbo Smith because he's the man who set down many of the standards that those of us who call ourselves jazz trumpet players follow today. He's a man of deep wit and humor and, of course, he's extremely talented... he has never lost his yen for fun and indulgence in his craft. When I grow up I want to be just like Jabbo."

[Clark Terry, January 1984]

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"Me siento tremendamente privilegiado y honrado de estar en el mismo planeta que Jabbo Smith, porque él es el hombre que estableció muchos de los estándares que seguimos hoy en día los que nos hacemos llamar trompetistas. Es un hombre de profundo ingenio y humor y, por supuesto, tiene muchísimo talento... nunca ha perdido las ganas de divertirse y de regodearse con sus bromas. Cuando sea mayor, quiero ser como Jabbo."

[Clark Terry, enero de 1984]

Jabbo Smith with the Hot Antic Jazz Band - 1982

The Hot Antic Jazz Band was born in 1979, after a jam session in which five amateur musicians discovered that they had a common passion for the music of the legendary trumpet player Jabbo Smith. They then decided to meet regularly in order to play his repertoire. The funding members were Michel Bastide (cornet and valve trombone), Jean-François Bonnel (clarinet and cornet), Gilles Berrut (piano), Jean-Pierre Dubois (banjo and reeds) and Christian Lefevre (tuba and valve trombone).

In 1982, Jabbo Smith played ten concerts in Europe (Switzerland, Italy and France) with the Hot Antic Jazz Band. This tour, a dream come true for the French band, was organized by Jean-Pierre Daubresse and got immortalized on the CD Jabbo Smith & the Hot Antic Jazz Band (Memories MECD04). In the book Voices Of The Jazz Age: Profiles Of Eight Vintage Jazzmen by Chip Deffaa (University of Illinois Press, 1990), leader Michel Bastide recalls that "It was for us a great shock: Jabbo was playing with a fire, enthusiasm, inventivity, technical possibilities, so far from what we heard in the recordings he did in the 1970s. Of course he was not the Jabbo of 1929, but he was not the tired old man who he was said to be". Just after Smith returned to the United States, he suffered a second stroke which affected the motor control of his voice and some facial muscles.

I will try to write in-depth on Jabbo Smith in the near future but, for the time being, let me bring my diligent readers two youtube.com videos from this 1982 European tour.

Jabbo Smith - Juan-les-Pins, 1979

Cladys 'Jabbo' Smith was one of the three members in the trumpet triumvirate of the late 1920s (Louis Armstrong -OKeh-, Henry 'Red' Allen -Victor- and himself -Brunswick-) but, in the 1930s, he moved to Milwaukee, which would be his home for many years, alternating with several returns to New York and the musical scene. Back in Milwaukee in the last 1940s, he married and raised two children while playing local gigs as a musician and working for Avis Rent-a-Car during the day.

Rehearsal recordings with Marty Grosz from Jun 3, 1961 were issued as Hidden Treasure on Jazz Art TR-520699/700 (and recently reissued on CD by Lone Hill Jazz), but his real comeback started in the late 1960s, when musicians, fans and record collectors were surprised to learn that the star of those great 1920s recordings was still alive. Smith successfully played with bands and shows in New York, New Orleans, Louisiana, London and France through the 1970s and into the 1980s. He appeared at the 1974 Newport Jazz Festival and four years later at the Village Gate and on tour with the off-Broadway show One Mo' Time.

Here's Jabbo Smith's band at the 1979 Juan-les-Pines Jazz Festival in France with Orange Kellin on clarinet, Waldren 'Frog' Joseph on trombone, Danny Barker on guitar, Lars Edegram on piano, Frank Fields on bass and John Robichaux on drums. This group had previously recorded on December 12, 1978, the album being issued as Jabbo! (Memories ME03). While, obviously, Jabbo is not at the height of his trumpet and vocal powers, he still can take the lead very solidly and play some real hot solos.