Johnny Smith Guitar Tab Books, Chord Melody Solos, Arrangements, Transcriptions, Lessons

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Johnny Smith     Johnny Smith, among the most important jazz guitarists of the 1950s and 1960s, is also an accomplished performer on viola, trumpet and violin. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama on June 25, 1922. A self taught player he mentions Andres Segovia and Django Reinhardt as his major guitar influences. Johnny Smith, whose dad was a banjo player and a guitarist, initially developed an interest in the jazz guitar at the age of five.     In 1935 Johnny Smith's family transferred to Portland, Maine. By that time Johnny was currently an outstanding jazz guitarist. He obtained his very first professional training in 1939 playing in a hillbilly group called "The Fenton Brothers". He led his very own jazz trio in Boston 1940-41 prior to joining the United States Air Force. Throughout World War 2 he played cornet in the Air Force Band. After leaving the Air Force in 1946 he returned to Portland and played trumpet and jazz guitar for a regional radio station, along with playing in clubs at night. Professional opportunities were not good in Portland, so later that year Johnny Smith transferred to New York city where he became an NBC staff musician. For the following eight years he played both trumpet and jazz guitar and wrote and arranged for the network.     Johnny Smith first acquired international importance as a jazz musician in the 1950s when he put together a quintet along with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. Their arrangement and record of "Moonlight In Vermont" came to be a jazz legend epitomizing the term "cool jazz". Among the finest selling jazz records of 1952, this recording continues as a milestone in jazz guitar history books. It is differentiated by Johnny Smith's virtuoso single note improvising as well as the one-of-a-kind harmonies of his close voicing jazz chords on the guitar.     From 1953-57 Johnny Smith successfully led his own band in East Coast jazz clubs and made more than twenty record albums for the Royal Roost recording label. Always curious about jazz guitar design and construction, Smith, after teaming up with Guild Guitars for a short while in the 1950s, has had a lengthy collaboration with the Gibson Guitar Company. Their "Johnny Smith Model" guitar has been among their most renowned jazz guitar archtop models since its introduction in 1960.     In 1957 after the unexpected death of his wife, Johnny Smith chose to settle in Colorado Springs, Colorado along with his four year old little girl. Since the early 1960s he has devoted much of his time to his specialized guitar shop in Colorado Springs. Johnny Smith continues to be thought of as possibly the greatest pickstyle jazz guitar player that has ever lived. He has perfect pitch along with perfect technique and has been called "The John Williams of the pickstyle jazz guitar". Jazz guitar giant Barney Kessel summed it up perfectly when he said "Nobody plays jazz guitar better than Johnny Smith". The majority of other famous jazz guitar players would certainly concur and Johnny Smith's legendary jazz guitar virtuoso status will most likely remain forever! Johnny Smith died on June 11, 2013 at the age of 90.

Johnny Smith - Guitar Solos - Book
Transcribed by Steve Silverman from the original recordings by Johnny Smith. Book includes Johnny's single note improvised solos for: "I'll Remember April, Dancing On The Ceiling, East Of The Sun, Easy To Love, It Could Happen To You, There's A Small Hotel, In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning, Have You Met Miss Jones, Love For Sale, Lover, Lover Man, I'm Getting Sentimental Over You, Moonlight in Vermont, 'S Wonderful, Taboo, Tea For Two, Tickle Toe, Walk Don't Run, What's New, Where Or When, Zing Went The Strings of My Heart".
Standard notation..........................................................................Price - $19.95

 Johnny Smith Plays "Round Midnight"

   The eclectic Johnny Smith methodology is based on the colorful mixture of his diverse musical passions. He has regularly cited Spanish classical guitar maestro Andres Segovia and French Gypsy jazz guitar innovator Django Reinhardt as his main guitar influences. A self-taught guitarist, Johnny Smith developed his powerful technique as a youth playing along with The Chesterfield Supper Club Band on the radio. An important aspect in his background is the very early hillbilly country music he learned to play as a member of The Fenton Brothers -- his first professional band in 1939.

 Johnny Smith Plays "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair"
  
    Johnny Smith is one of the original virtuosos of the electric guitar. From the sweeping three octave runs of "Moonlight in Vermont," "Tea for Two," and "Easy Living," to the super quick articulate solos that differentiate "Tabu," "Jaguar," "I'll Remember April," "Un Poco Loco," "Samba," "'S Wonderful," "Tickle Toe," "Three Little Words," and "Time After Time," Johnny Smith's intricate yet listenable single note jazz guitar improvised solos are the stuff of legend in the history of guitar lore - jazz or otherwise.

   Exacting precision and technique expertise have long been hallmarks of the Johnny Smith jazz guitar methodology, nevertheless these factors have been constantly held in check by his sense of taste and clarity. Jazz guitar virtuoso Barney Kessel once summed it up nicely along with his now famous observation: "No one in the world plays jazz guitar better than Johnny Smith".

 Johnny Smith Plays "The Girl From Ipanema"

   Johnny Smith is one of the most distinctive jazz guitar chord melody players in any kind of genre. Envision the jazz chord voicings of pianists Art Tatum and George Shearing combined with the impressionistic harmonic colors of Claude Debussy, performed and understood on an electric guitar and you have an inkling of how Johnny Smith improved the status of the guitar as a chord instrument.

   Quintessential jazz guitar chord melody moments in Johnny Smith's Royal Roost recordings feature "Moonlight in Vermont," "Yesterday," "When I Fall in Love," "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," "You Don't Know What Love Is," "Villa," "I'll Remember Clifford," "My Romance," and "The Lady Is a Tramp." An early recording of "Autumn Leaves" finds Johnny Smith developing a flamenco inspired atmosphere with spectacular arabesques, double-timed passage performances and classically inspired chords on acoustic guitar. And the unusual chiming harmonics in the theme of "It Never Entered My Mind" make the recording worth the price of admission alone.

  Johnny Smith Plays "Tenderly"

   In retrospect, an incongruous Royal Roost record like "The Man With The Blue Guitar" appears an obvious expression of Johnny Smith's broader musical pallet. This 1962 recording discovered him in a solo guitar context for an entire album creating his plectrum magical sounds along with an assorted set of standards, classical, and folk pieces. Here his gorgeous tone, touch, and technique on the instrument are directed at well known Broadway show tunes by Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin and others, modern day works by Debussy, Scriabin, and Ravel, and unique arrangements of older folk tunes like "Shenandoah" and "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair." Further proof of Johnny Smith's eclectic nature was flaunted on his "Phase 2" album (Verve Records) of the sixties. This "jazz" record album featured the maestro's take on often neglected pop tunes like "Exodus," "Don't Sleep In The Subway Darling," "This Guy's In Love With You," "Sunny," "Light My Fire" and "Yesterday".