Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith (August 14, 1909 – September 25, 1967), better known as Stuff Smith, was an American

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 major ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist. He is well known for the song "

If You're a Viper "If You're a Viper" (originally released under the title "''You'se a Viper''", and sometimes titled "''If You'se a Viper''") is a jazz song composed by Stuff Smith. It was first recorded by Smith and his Onyx Club Boys in 1936 and released as the ...

" (the original title was "You'se a Viper"). Smith was, along with

Stéphane Grappelli Stéphane Grappelli (; 26 January 1908 – 1 December 1997, born Stefano Grappelli) was a French jazz violinist. He is best known as a founder of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the firs ...

Michel Warlop Michel Maurice Armand Warlop (23 January 1911 – 6 March 1947) was a French classical and jazz violinist professionally active from 1929 to 1947. Early life and education Michel Warlop (Michou to his friends) was a child prodigy who began mu ...

Svend Asmussen Svend Asmussen (28 February 1916 – 7 February 2017) was a Danish jazz violinist, known as "The Fiddling Viking". A Swing style virtuoso, he played and recorded with many of the other jazz musicians, including Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and S ...

Ray Nance Ray Willis Nance (December 10, 1913 – January 28, 1976) was an American jazz trumpeter, violinist and singer. He is best remembered for his long association with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. Early years Nance was the leader of his ow ...

and

Joe Venuti Giuseppe "Joe" Venuti (September 16, 1903 – August 14, 1978) was an American jazz musician and pioneer jazz violinist. Considered the father of jazz violin, he pioneered the use of string instruments in jazz along with the guitarist Eddie La ...

, one of jazz music's preeminent violinists of the swing era.

Biography

He was born in

Portsmouth, Ohio Portsmouth is a city in and the county seat of Scioto County, Ohio, United States. Located in southern Ohio south of Chillicothe, it lies on the north bank of the Ohio River, across from Kentucky, just east of the mouth of the Scioto River. ...

, United States in 1909, and studied violin with his father. Smith cited

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

as his primary influence and inspiration to play jazz, and like Armstrong, was a vocalist as well as instrumentalist. In the 1920s, he played in Texas as a member of

Alphonse Trent Alphonse "Alphonso" Trent (October 24, 1902 – October 14, 1959) was an American jazz pianist and territory band leader. Early life Trent was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas on October 24, 1902. He played piano from childhood and worked in local ban ...

's band. After moving to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

he performed regularly with his sextet at the

Onyx Club The Onyx Club was a jazz club located on 52nd Street (Manhattan), West 52nd Street in New York City. ...

starting in 1935, and also with

Coleman Hawkins Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

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 ...

, and later,

Sun Ra Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific out ...

. After being signed to

Vocalion Records Vocalion Records is an American record company and label. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...

in 1936, he had a hit with "I'se a Muggin'" and was billed as Stuff Smith and His Onyx Club Boys. He recorded for Vocalion in 1936,

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

in 1937, and Varsity in 1939–1940. He is featured in several numbers on the

Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...

Trio album, ''After Midnight''. Part of Smith's performance at what is considered the first outdoor jazz festival, the 1938

Carnival of Swing The Carnival of Swing was a music festival that took place on 29 May 1938 on Randall's Island, New York. It is considered the first outdoor jazz festival. Performing at the concert were twenty-five swing bands, including the Duke Ellington and Coun ...

Randall's Island Randalls Island (sometimes called Randall's Island) and Wards Island are conjoined islands, collectively called Randalls and Wards Islands, in New York County, New York City,

, turned up unexpectedly on audio engineer

William Savory William Alcott Savory (June 11, 1916 – February 11, 2004) was an audio engineer known for his extensive private recordings of important jazz musicians in the 1930s, and for his contributions to recording technology. A musician who developed an i ...

's discs, which were self-recorded off the radio at the time, then long-sequestered. Some newsreel footage survived but no audio of the festival was thought to have survived until the discs were acquired in 2012 by

Loren Schoenberg Loren Schoenberg (born July 23, 1958) is a tenor saxophonist, conductor, educator, and jazz historian. He has won two Grammy Awards for Best Album Notes. He is the former Executive Director and currently Senior Scholar of the National Jazz Museum ...

, executive director of the

National Jazz Museum in Harlem The National Jazz Museum in Harlem is a museum dedicated to preservation and celebration of the jazz history of Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. The idea for the museum was conceived in 1995. The museum was founded in 1997 by Leonard Garment, co ...

."Storied Trove of 1930s Jazz Is Acquired by Museum"
by Larry Rohter, ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2010. Retrieved 2010-08-16 (Access to this reference requires a subscription) Smith was critical of the

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...

movement, although his own style represented a transition between swing and bebop. He is credited as being the first violinist to use electric amplification techniques on a violin. He was one of the writers of the song "It's Wonderful" (1937), which was often performed by Louis Armstrong and

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

throughout their careers. Smith moved to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

in 1965, performed actively in Europe, and died in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

in 1967. He is buried at Klakring Cemetery in

Jutland Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...

, Denmark. Stuff Smith is one of the 57 jazz musicians photographed in the 1958 portrait '' A Great Day in Harlem''.

Discography

As leader

* ''Stuff Smith'' (

Verve Verve may refer to: Music * The Verve, an English rock band * ''The Verve E.P.'', a 1992 EP by The Verve * ''Verve'' (R. Stevie Moore album) * Verve Records, an American jazz record label Businesses * Verve Coffee Roasters, an American coffee ho ...

, 1957) * '' Dizzy Gillespie and Stuff Smith'' (Verve, 1957) * ''Have Violin, Will Swing'' (Verve, 1958) * ''Sweet Swingin' Stuff'' (

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

, 1959) * '' Cat on a Hot Fiddle'' (Verve, 1960) * ''

Herb Ellis Mitchell Herbert Ellis (August 4, 1921 – March 28, 2010), known professionally as Herb Ellis, was an American jazz guitarist. During the 1950s, he was in a trio with pianist Oscar Peterson. Biography Born in Farmersville, Texas, and raised ...

& Stuff Smith Together!'' ( Epic, 1963) * ''Stuff and Steff'' with

Stephane Grappelli Stephane may refer to: * Stéphane, a French given name * Stephane (Ancient Greece), a vestment in ancient Greece * Stephane (Paphlagonia) Stephane ( grc, Στεφάνη) was a small port town on the coast of ancient Paphlagonia, according to Arr ...

( Barclay, 1966) * ''Violin Summit'' with Stephane Grappelli,

Jean-Luc Ponty Jean-Luc Ponty (born 29 September 1942) is a French jazz violinist and composer. Early life Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano. At sixteen, he was admitt ...

, (

SABA Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Şaba (Romanian for Shabo), a town of the Odesa Oblast, Ukraine * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Saba (river), ...

, 1967) * ''Black Violin'' ( MPS, 1972) * ''Violins No End'' with Stephane Grappelli (

Pablo Pablo is a Spanish form of the name Paul. People * Pablo Alborán, Spanish singer *Pablo Aimar, Argentine footballer *Pablo Armero, Colombian footballer * Pablo Bartholomew, Indian photojournalist *Pablo Brandán, Argentine footballer * Pablo Bren ...

, 1984) * ''The 1943 Trio'' (

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...

, 1988) * ''Live at the Montmartre'' ( Storyville, 1988) * ''Live in Paris'' ( France's Concert, 1965/1988) * ''Hot Violins'' with Svend Asmussen,

Kenny Drew Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew (August 28, 1928 – August 4, 1993) was an American-Danish jazz pianist. Biography Drew was born in New York City, United States, and received piano lessons from the age of five.Feather, Leonard, & Ira Gitler (2 ...

Trio, Poul Olsen (Storyville, 1991) * ''Stuff Smith – 1939-1944'' compilation (

Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

, 1999) * ''Late Woman Blues'' with

Henri Chaix Henri François Chaix (February 21, 1925 in Geneva – June 11, 1999 in Geneva) was a French jazz pianist and bandleader. Early life and career Chaix was born in Geneva, but both of his parents were French citizens; he studied at the Conservatoir ...

Trio (Storyville, 2001) * ''The Complete 1944

Rosenkrantz Rosenkranz is the German word for rosary. Rosenkranz, Rosenkrantz, Rosencrance, Rosencrans or Rosencrantz may refer to: * Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two characters in Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'' * ''Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'', a 1966 ...

Apartment Transcription Duets'' ( AB Fable, 2002) * ''1944-46: Studio, Broadcast, Concert & Apartment Performances'' (AB Fable, 2002) * ''1944 & 1945 Performances'' ( AB Fable, 2004) * ''Swingin' Stuff'' (Storyville, 2005) * ''Five Fine Violins: Celebrating 100 Years'' (Storyville, 2010) * ''1937'' (AB Fable, 2010)

As sideman

With

* ''Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook Volume One'' (Verve, 1975) * ''The Duke Ellington Songbook, Volume Two: The Small Group Sessions'' (Verve, 1982) With

* '' Dee Gee Days: The Savoy Sessions'' (

Savoy Savoy (; frp, Savouè ; french: Savoie ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south. Savo ...

, 1976) * ''Dizzy Gillespie'' (Dee Gee, 1952) * ''The Champ'' (Savoy, 1956) * ''School Days'' (Regent, 1957) With

* ''

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

'' (Saturn, 1973) * ''Dreams Come True'' (Saturn, 1973) * ''Sound Sun Pleasure!!'' (Evidence, 1991) With others *

, ''After Midnight'' (Capitol, 1956) *

Roy Eldridge David Roy Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 26, 1989), nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpeter. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from t ...

, Count Basie Orchestra, ''Americans in Sweden'' (Jazz Society, 1983) *

Earl Hines Earl Kenneth Hines, also known as Earl "Fatha" Hines (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983), was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one source, " ...

, ''Hine's Tunes'' (France's Concert, 1987) *

Gene Krupa Eugene Bertram Krupa (January 15, 1909 – October 16, 1973), known as Gene Krupa, was an American jazz drummer, bandleader and composer who performed with energy and showmanship. His drum solo on Benny Goodman's 1937 recording of "Sing, Sing, S ...

, Charlie Ventura, ''Town Hall Concert Vol. 2'' (London, 1974) *

Carmen McRae Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpre ...

, ''Sessions, Live'' (Calliope, 1976) *

Red Nichols Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols (May 8, 1905 – June 28, 1965) was an American jazz cornetist, composer, and jazz bandleader. Biography Early life and career Nichols was born in Ogden, Utah, United States. His father was a college music profes ...

, ''Sessions, Live'' (Calliope, 1976) *

Ben Webster Benjamin Francis Webster (March 27, 1909 – September 20, 1973) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Career Early life and career A native of Kansas City, Missouri, he studied violin, learned how to play blues on the piano from ...

, ''Ben and the Boys'' (Jazz Archives, 1976)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Stuff 1909 births 1967 deaths American jazz violinists American male violinists People from Portsmouth, Ohio Swing violinists Vocalion Records artists 20th-century American violinists Jazz musicians from Ohio 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians American emigrants to Denmark 20th-century African-American musicians