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Johnny Smith

Guitarist Johnny Smith's career spans the decades of the 1940's through the 1990's. From the very beginning of his musical career he influenced the playing of other guitarists. In fact, many mention Smith as a major influence on their playing. The major guitar builders as Guild, Gibson, Benedetto, and the Heritage all have their signature Johnny Smith high end models as a tribute to this master.

John Henry Smith, Jr. was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1922 and was only five years old when he became fascinated with the guitar. His father played five-string banjo but guitar was John's first and lasting love. Initially he was frustrated by the lack of a guitar teacher or instruction manuals: determined to master the instrument, he taught himself to play. Many outstanding and individual jazz soloists have fallen back on the empirical method for the same reason as Smith and emerged with wholly distinctive sounds. In 1935 the Smith family moved to Portland, Maine: Johnny was 13 and good enough to play in local bands.

In 1942 he joined the USAAF (he was already a student pilot) and ended up in a band which needed a cornet player rather than a guitarist. In six months he had learned the cornet well enough to be given the position of first cornetist. After his discharge from the Air Force in 1946 he went back to Portland to play both guitar and trumpet on local radio as well as playing in clubs at night, but the pay was never very good. He went to New York to work as an arranger at NBC and in 1947 he became a member of the NBC orchestra. For eight years he worked with the orchestra as guitarist, trumpeter, arranger and composer.

Although he had been greatly influenced by Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian at the outset (he learned Django's solos from record and actually met the Gypsy guitarist when he came to the United States in 1946) Johnny did not consider himself to be a jazz musician. Nevertheless, he made his first record as leader in March 1952, in the company of Stan Getz, Eddie Safranski, Sanford Gold and Don Lamond. One title from that date, "Moonlight in Vermont," was a turning point in Smith's career despite its short duration. "Vermont" was made for the Royal Roost label (frequently abbreviated to Roost Records) and the company signed Smith to a long-term contract during which time he produced around 20 albums. Roost was later absorbed by Roulette which reissued several of Johnny's LPs. Most of the albums featured solo guitar or a trio; two backed Smith with strings playing arrangements the guitarist wrote himself. There was a great appeal to Smith's graceful, melodic treatment of superior tunes. Not only the record-buying public but hundreds of guitarists found the music entrancing. The dexterous fingering, the perfection of manner in which he ran chords and arpeggios, all contributed to the acclaim for Johnny's work.

During his tenure at Roost Records, he produced a long list of significant recordings that include the great quartet recordings: “The Johnny Smith Quartet,” and “The Sound of The Johnny Smith Guitar” among others. Also, during this period he made the “Man With The Blue Guitar.” This album, unusual for its time, has probably been transcribed more than any other Johnny Smith recording. Then there was the production “Annotations of The Muses,” on which Johnny Smith displays everything that made him a great musician and an extraordinary guitar player.

Johnny Smith retired from the jazz scene in the 1960's to Colorado where he opened a music store. He continued to play in local nightclubs and made a recording with some local musicians “Reminiscing,” that showed he had lost none of the signature Johnny Smith style or technique. His last recorded work was the Concord Records CD “Legends,” in 1994.

The Johnny Smith Guitars:

In 1955, after discussions with the Guild Guitar Company, Smith designed a guitar and sent the drawings and specifications to the company. The Guild designers modified it (to Smith's dissatisfaction), and manufactured the resulting guitar as the Guild Johnny Smith Award.

In 1961, Gibson, went to meet the retired Smith at his home in Colorado Springs. Smith designed the guitar he wanted built. The design was accepted by Gibson with a few minor cosmetic changes which were acceptable to Smith. Gibson began production of the resulting Gibson Johnny Smith model that year. Guild continued to produce their Johnny Smith guitar under the model name Guild Artist Award.

When Gibson moved its manufacturing facilities from Kalamazoo, Michigan to Nashville, Tennessee, several of their managers and artisans chose to stay behind. Many of these ex-employees formed Heritage Guitars and bought the old Kalamazoo factory from Gibson. Given a choice between Gibson and Heritage building the guitar that bore his name, Smith chose to stay with the old artisans at the old location under new ownership. The Heritage Johnny Smith model was introduced in 1989. Like Guild before them, Gibson continued to manufacture their version of the Johnny Smith design with a new name: the Gibson LeGrand.

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, of which Guild Guitars was a subsidiary, asked Smith if he would be willing to return his endorsement to the Guild Artist Award. Familiar with Schultz's management, and knowing that the construction would be supervised by master luthier Bob Benedetto, Smith agreed. The Guild Johnny Smith Award by Benedetto was available through Guild dealers until early 2006 when Benedetto left Fender. Source: James Nadal
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Johnny Smith featuring Stan Getz: Moonlight In Vermont

by Chris May
February 11, 2024

The last word in glacial serenity, this version of Karl Suessdorf's “Moonlight In Vermont" was, as a single on the Roost label, a bigtime jukebox and radio hit for Johnny Smith and Stan Getz in 1952. At the time both musicians were salaried musicians at NBC radio and TV studios in New York. In all, in 1952 and 1953, Smith and Getz recorded eight tracks for Roost, which were included on the 1956 compilation album Moonlight In Vermont. Perhaps the ...

On and Off the Grid

Johnny Smith: The Man, The Legend

by Dom Minasi
September 19, 2013

On June 11, 2013, guitarist Johnny Smith passed away. He was 90 years old. Some may have never heard of him, but in the world of jazz guitar he was legend. There will be many articles written about him. Besides the historical content of his accomplishments, I want to write about what he meant to me on a personal level and the thousands of other guitarists throughout the world. I was 14 years old when I ...

273

Album Review

Johnny Smith: The Sound Of The Johnny Smith Guitar

Read "The Sound Of The Johnny Smith Guitar" reviewed by Mike Neely

by Mike Neely
March 26, 2007

A half-century after Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and Bud Powell made names for themselves in the world of jazz, it is more than likely that if these three giants somehow returned to play in New York City they would still be at the very top of the heap among their fellow musicians. A similar claim could be made for another musician, Johnny Smith, who is barely known except among jazz guitar aficionados.

Smith played most of his professional ...

183

Album Review

Johnny Smith with Friends Mark Holzinger and Chris Justin: San Francisco Bay Jazz

Read "San Francisco Bay Jazz" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone

by Michael P. Gladstone
October 25, 2006

Take a guess as to which famous musician guitarist/vocalist Johnny Smith is related to. If you opted for guitar jazz legend Johnny Smith, as some might, you were wrong. Smith's uncle and aunt are Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett of rock music fame, who were a significant act circa 1970 with such hits as “Only You Know & I Know," “Never Ending Song Of Love" and “Soul Shake."

As advertised, Johnny Smith is a self-taught guitarist who sings and ...

277

Album Review

Johnny Smith: Walk, Don't Run!

Read "Walk, Don't Run!" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
August 6, 2005

Woefully obscure and unlauded today, Johnny Smith's early '50s recordings make him as important to the development of jazz guitar as his contemporaries Stan Getz and Al Haig are to the history of the tenor saxophone and the piano. Johnny who?

For a very short while, Smith was a star. His '52 single “Moonlight In Vermont," featuring Getz, came out of nowhere--Smith was then an anonymous staff musician at NBC, New York--to become a massive coast-to-coast US radio ...

375

Album Review

The Johnny Smith Quintet: Moonlight In Vermont

Read "Moonlight In Vermont" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
July 24, 2004

This may be the greatest “forgotten" jazz album of its time.

“Moonlight In Vermont" was originally released as the B side of a single in '52. Its lush, gorgeous, laid back groove--caressed into life by Smith and Stan Getz--made it an immediate radio hit and it was voted Jazz Record Of The Year by Downbeat.

Over subsequent decades, “Moonlight In Vermont" and the eponymous album to which it gave birth (originally two 10" issues titled Jazz At NBC ) have ...

436

Album Review

Johnny Smith: The Complete Roost Johnny Smith Small Group Sessions

Read "The Complete Roost Johnny Smith Small Group Sessions" reviewed by AAJ Staff

by AAJ Staff
December 2, 2002

The world of jazz in the late '40s, '50s, and early '60s was graced with one of the most talented guitar virtuosos of all time: Johnny Smith. Unless you were a budding young jazz guitarist or a lover of guitar at that time, you probably don't own or haven't heard most of the incredible recordings that this great artist produced. Mosaic Records' release of The Complete Roost Johnny Smith Small Group Sessions is exactly that.

This 8-CD ...

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