William Crickett Smith (February 8, 1881 – August 30, 1944) was an American

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott J ...

, blues and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

cornetist and trumpeter.

Career

Little is known of Smith's early life, though he was born in Emporia, Kansas, the child of Tennessee

Exodusters Exodusters was a name given to African Americans who migrated from states along the Mississippi River to Kansas in the late nineteenth century, as part of the Exoduster Movement or Exodus of 1879. It was the first general migration of black pe ...

. His professional career began in childhood, performing in Nathaniel Clark Smith's Picaninny Band before moving into

minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer ...

troupes,

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

and

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

. In 1913–1914, he made several early recordings with

James Reese Europe James Reese Europe (February 22, 1881 – May 9, 1919) was an American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, arranger, and composer. He was the leading figure on the African Americans music scene of New York City in the 1910s. Eubie Blake called hi ...

's group, the

Clef Club The Clef Club was an entertainment venue and society for African-American musicians in Harlem, achieving its largest success in the 1910s. Incorporated by James Reese Europe in 1910, it was a combination musicians' hangout, fraternity club, labor ...

Society Orchestra. Between 1914 and 1919, he performed in the

Ford Dabney Ford Thompson Dabney (15 March 1883 – 6 June 1958) was an American ragtime pianist, composer, songwriter, and acclaimed director of bands and orchestras for Broadway musical theater, revues, vaudeville, and early recordings. Additionally, for ...

Orchestra, the resident band at Florenz Ziegfeld's Broadway cabaret, Midnight Frolics. Between 1917 and 1919, they produced several dozen phonographs. In June 1919, Smith relocated to Paris, playing with

Louis Mitchell Louis A. Mitchell (December 17, 1885 – September 12, 1957) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Mitchell began performing in vaudeville revues and minstrel shows from around the turn of the century, playing drums and bandoline. Afte ...

's Jazz Kings from 1919 to 1924, a group that recorded for Pathe Records. He became the leader of Mitchell's group in 1923. He toured France, Spain and Russia with his own bands from 1925 to 1933. During the Depression, he spent nine years in Southeast Asia, working with

Herb Flemming Herb Flemming (April 5, 1898 – October 3, 1976) was an American jazz trombonist and vocalist who played extensively in Europe. Early life Flemming was born Nicolaiih El-Michelle, and was of North African descent. Flemming studied music an ...

Leon Abbey Leon Alexander Anthony Abbey (May 7, 1900 – September 1975) was an American jazz violinist and bandleader. Biography He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 7, 1900, to Luther James Robert Abbey and Eva Lee Alexander. He started his ca ...

, and Teddy Weatherford, mostly in Bombay and Batavia. In 1936, he recorded with a group called the Symphonians. Around 1943 he returned to New York, and died late in 1944.

References

*Rainer E. Lotz, "Crickett Smith". '' The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz''. 2nd edition, ed. Barry Kernfeld, 2004. {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Crickett American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters American jazz cornetists Musicians from Nashville, Tennessee 1880s births 1947 deaths Jazz musicians from Tennessee 20th-century trumpeters 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians