Hale Smith (June 29, 1925 – November 24, 2009) was an American composer, arranger, and pianist.De Lerma, Dominique-Rene
"African Heritage Symphonic Series"
Liner note essay.

Cedille A cedilla ( ; from Spanish) or cedille (from French , ) is a hook or tail ( ¸ ) added under certain letters as a diacritical mark to modify their pronunciation. In Catalan, French, and Portuguese (called cedilha) it is used only under the ...

CDR061.

Biography

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he learned piano at an early age and played

mellophone The mellophone is a brass instrument typically pitched in the key of F, though models in E, D, C, and G (as a bugle) have also historically existed. It has a conical bore, like that of the euphonium and flugelhorn. The mellophone is used as the m ...

in the high school band. As a teenager, he played jazz piano in local nightclubs. When he was sixteen, he met

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

, who commented on his compositions. In the early 1940s he was drafted and worked for the U.S. Army as an arranger for shows at camps in Georgia and Florida. After the Army he studied classical music and composition at the

Cleveland Institute of Music The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is a private music conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1920 by Ernest Bloch, it enrolls 325 students in the conservatory and approximately 1,500 students in the preparatory and continuing educatio ...

and received bachelor's and master's degrees. His composition ''Four Songs'' won the first student composer award given by BMI. During the late 1950s he moved to New York City and was employed as an editor at publishing companies. He worked as a jazz pianist and arranger with

Eric Dolphy Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist and flautist. On a few occasions, he also played the clarinet and piccolo. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gai ...

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

Ahmad Jamal Ahmad Jamal (born Frederick Russell Jones, July 2, 1930) is an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and educator. For six decades, he has been one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz. Biography Early life Jamal was born Fr ...

Melba Liston Melba Doretta Liston (January 13, 1926 – April 23, 1999) was an American jazz trombonist, arranger, and composer. Other than those playing in all-female bands she was the first woman trombonist to play in big bands during the 1940s and 1960s, ...

Oliver Nelson Oliver Edward Nelson (June 4, 1932 – October 28, 1975) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. His 1961 Impulse! album '' The Blues and the Abstract Truth'' (1961) is regarded as one of the most signifi ...

, and

Randy Weston Randolph Edward "Randy" Weston (April 6, 1926 – September 1, 2018) was an American jazz pianist and composer whose creativity was inspired by his ancestral African connection. Weston's piano style owed much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious M ...

and wrote incidental music for television, radio, and theater. With

Chico Hamilton Foreststorn "Chico" Hamilton (September 20, 1921 – November 25, 2013) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He came to prominence as sideman for Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie, and Lena Horne. Hamilton became a bandleader, ...

he wrote music for the movie ''Mr. Ricco'' (1975). His compositions include ''The Valley Wind'' (1952), ''In Memoriam, Beryl Rubinstein'' (1953), ''Sonata for Cello and Piano'' (1955), ''Contours for Orchestra'' (1961), ''Faces of Jazz'' (1965), ''Evocation'' (1966), ''Ritual and Incantation'' (1974), ''Innerflexions'' (1977), ''Toussaint L'Ouverture'' (1979), ''Solemn Music'' (1979), '' Three Patterson Lyrics'' (1985), and ''Dialogues and Commentaries'' (1991) He wrote music for band, choir, orchestra, jazz groups, chamber ensembles, duos, and solo performance. Smith was a teacher at

C.W. Post Charles William Post (October 26, 1854 – May 9, 1914) was an American innovator, breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer and a pioneer in the prepared-food industry. He was the founder of what is now Post Consumer Brands. Early life Char ...

campus of Long Island University in Brookville and the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

in Storrs. He died at the age of 84 on November 24, 2009, due to a stroke.

Award and honors

* Cleveland Art Prize in Music, 1973 * Outstanding Achievement Award, National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music, 1982 * Honorary doctorate, Cleveland Institute of Music, 1988 * Composer's Recording Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1988 * Letter of Distinction, American Music Center, 2001 * Hale Smith Day, Freeport, New York, 2010

Compositions

* ''Orchestral Set'' (1952) * ''Four Songs for Medium Voice'' (1952) * ''The Valley Wind'' (1952) * ''In Memoriam – Beryl Rubinstein'' (1953) * ''Sonata for Violoncello and Piano (1955) * ''Two Love Songs of John Donne'' (1958) * ''Feathers'' (1960) * ''Contours for Orchestra'' (1961) * ''Take a Chance: An Aleatoric Episode'' (1964) * ''By Yearning and by Beautiful'' (1964) * ''Evocation'' (1966) * ''Expansions'' (1967) * ''Music for Harp and Chamber Orchestra'' (1967) * ''Trinal Dance'' (1968) * ''I Love Music'' (c. 1970) – recorded by

Betty Carter Betty Carter (born Lillie Mae Jones; May 16, 1929 – September 26, 1998) was an American jazz singer known for her improvisational technique, scatting and other complex musical abilities that demonstrated her vocal talent and imaginative inter ...

Joe Lovano Joseph Salvatore Lovano (born December 29, 1952)"Joe Lovano." ''Contemporary Musicians''. Vol. 13. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 1994. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, May 5, 2017. is an American jazz saxophonist, alto clarin ...

, * ''Beyond the Rim of Day'' (1970) * ''Exchanges'' (1972) * ''Somersault: A Twelve Tone Adventure'' (1974) * ''Ritual and Incantation'' (1974) * ''Variations for Six Players'' (1975) * ''Innerflexions'' (1977) * ''Solemn Music'' (1979) * ''Toussaint L'Ouverture, 1803'' (1979) * ''Meditations in Passage'' (1982) * ''Variations a' Due for saxophone and cello (1984, rev.1995), recorded by Dr. Ira Wiggins and Dr. Timothy Holley * ''March and Fanfare for an Elegant Lady'' (1986) * ''Dialogues & Commentaries'' (1990–91) * ''Recitative and Aria'' (1995)

References

* Breda, Malcolm Joseph. (1975). ''Hale Smith: A Biographical and Analytical Study of the Man and His Music.'' Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern Mississippi. * Caldwell, Hansonia La Verne (1975). "Conversation With Hale Smith, A Man of Many Parts." ''The Black Perspective in Music'', vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 59–76 (spring 1975).

External links

Hale Smith's page at Theodore Presser Company
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Hale 1925 births 2009 deaths 20th-century African-American musicians 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American pianists 20th-century classical composers 20th-century classical pianists 21st-century African-American musicians 21st-century American composers 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American pianists 21st-century classical composers 21st-century classical pianists African-American classical composers American classical composers African-American classical pianists African-American jazz pianists African-American male classical composers African-American opera composers American classical pianists American male classical composers American male classical pianists American male jazz musicians Classical musicians from Ohio Cleveland Institute of Music alumni Jazz musicians from Ohio Male opera composers Musicians from Cleveland University of Connecticut faculty United States Army personnel of World War II