Paul Smith
Paul Smith was born in San Diego, California, on April 17, 1922. He grew up in an ideal musical family environment. His mother, nee Constance Farmer, was an accomplished vocalist, and his father, Lon Smith, a talented trumpet player. Both performed a musical act, billed as Smith and Farmer, and they enjoyed a successful vaudeville career.
Paul’s formal musical training began when he was 8 years old, and throughout eight years of serious study he acquired a thorough background in classical music. In the meantime he became interested in popular music and played with the high school dance orchestra. “I was working casuals by the time I was 16,” he would recall in his 30s. “Art Tatum was my chief early influence, and I’d still rather listen to him than anyone else.”
Smith landed his first name-band assignment with Johnny Richards in 1941, and by that time he had developed an interest in...
Paul Smith was born in San Diego, California, on April 17, 1922. He grew up in an ideal musical family environment. His mother, nee Constance Farmer, was an accomplished vocalist, and his father, Lon Smith, a talented trumpet player. Both performed a musical act, billed as Smith and Farmer, and they enjoyed a successful vaudeville career.
Paul’s formal musical training began when he was 8 years old, and throughout eight years of serious study he acquired a thorough background in classical music. In the meantime he became interested in popular music and played with the high school dance orchestra. “I was working casuals by the time I was 16,” he would recall in his 30s. “Art Tatum was my chief early influence, and I’d still rather listen to him than anyone else.”
Smith landed his first name-band assignment with Johnny Richards in 1941, and by that time he had developed an interest in arranging. “I learned a great deal about arranging from Johnny,” he explained. “I will always be grateful for the interest he took in my work.”
A year later, Paul joined Ozzie Nelson as pianist-arranger and stayed with him until 1943 when he entered the U.S. Air Force. Smith spent two years with a service band headed by Ziggy Elman and one year in Germany as a member of the Military Police where he conducted for visiting USO shows. It is doubtful that this assignment caused him any more trouble than playing a four-bar introduction, for Paul was a huge fellow standing six feet five inches in height and weighing 248 pounds.
After his discharge from the service in 1946, Paul worked with Les Paul’s trio and as accompanist for the Andrew Sisters before joining Tommy Dorsey in the fall of 1947. He said, “I can safely say that the two years I spent with Tommy constitute my most valuable experience in the music business... I learned an awful lot through that association.”
After leaving Dorsey in the spring of 1949, Paul confined his activities to the Hollywood area. At the end of that year he recorded his first session as leader of his own quartet for the Discovery label. In 1950, he worked with the Benny Goodman orchestra and toured twice with the Goodman sextet: once to Las Vegas and the other to Hull, Quebec. “Each trip lasted two weeks,” Paul said, “and it was more like a vacation than a job. It was great to work with the excellent musicians that made up those groups.”
Due to his training, he did not fully see himself as a jazz musician. To The San Diego Union Tribune in 1991, he said that early in his career he ‘’could see there was more money to be made in studio work than playing a jazz joint.’’ And from then on the studio work occupied a large part of his time, although he never neglected his own recording career as a leader.
In Hollywood he became one of the most sought after pianists for recording sessions by Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Burke, Paul Nero, Benny Goodman and Benny Carter. During 1952, he also entered the studios to record with his own quartet for the Discovery and Skylark/Tampa labels.
Paul’s busy schedule included several radio and television shows. In addition, he often recorded with the Paul Weston Orchestra, The Voices of Walter Schumann, and other groups. He worked as a staff musician for NBC and Warner Brothers, and for eight years was the musical director for Dinah Shore’s daytime talk show.
In the spring of 1953 he signed an exclusive artist contract with Capitol Records, appearing on various recording sessions with such leaders as Pete Candoli, Billy May, Ray Anthony, and June Christy.
As hinted above, Smith was an exceptionally brilliant and versatile pianist, one whose great talent and extensive training made him suitable for any kind of commission, and so it was. After all of the new and old sounds, the hot sounds and the cool sounds, it would take a very imaginative musician to create something truly unusual. At Capitol they thought that Paul Smith was the right artist to carry out this project. And at the same time, it would be Paul’s debut as a leader on the label.
To that end, Paul’s idea was to combine the flowing sound of woodwinds with the percussive attack of guitar and piano. He combined flute (Julius Kinsler), clarinet (Abe Most), guitar (Tony Rizzi), bass (Sam Cheifetz) and drums (Alvin Stoller or Irv Cottler), and, in early 1954, he recorded the album “Liquid Sounds” that included eleven tunes on which the ensembles came together extremely well. Smith’s writing was witty and flexible, and his own piano playing was as graceful as ever.
Three more albums in the same vein followed, “Cascades” (1955), “Cool and Sparkling” (1956) and “Delicate Jazz” (1958), whose music, sometimes sophisticated, often swinging, always conveyed a sense of good taste and good humor. On this string of hit albums, he produced a type of superior cocktail music, along with something else when Paul, Toni Rizzi, Ronny Lang (alto sax), Bob Cooper, (tenor sax) and Stan Levey (drums) stopped and blew.
Most of the melodies are taken at an energetic pace with few ballads included. The solos are short. The arrangements are cleverly conceived and attractively executed in the restrained terms set forth. Its style defies neat labels, and the appeal is too broad to be labeled “modern jazz,” “cocktail music” or “easy listening music.” It is all of these. If you like jazz blown with the slick, elegant courtesy of Hollywood, you’ll enjoy these Liquid Sounds by Paul Smith.
Following to these early recordings for Capitol, and throughout his extensive career, Paul Smith recorded frequently with his trios, quartets, as a solo pianist, and as an accompanist for such singers as Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Anita O’Day, Mel Tormé, Jo Stafford, Sammy Davis Jr., Rosemary Clooney, Sarah Vaughan, Joanie Sommers, and Karrin Allyson. He was best known for his long association, both on records and on concert stages around the world, with Ella Fitzgerald between 1956 and 1979. Their musical relationship was a fulfilling creative experience for both, with Smith playing on many of Fitzgerald’s critically praised, classic “Songbook” albums.
In addition to his far-reaching activities as an accompanist and solo artist Paul appeared on the albums of such leaders as Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy DeFranco, Louis Bellson, Stan Kenton, Chet Baker among others.
For more than 25 years Smith was the pianist and musical director of the television show The Steve Allen Comedy Hour. “What Paul Smith does with two hands would ordinarily take three. He does the impossible,” Allen —himself a pianist and jazz fan— once said. Paul was also busy touring Japan, Europe and the US as conductor and pianist for Pat Boone.
Since 1957, Paul was married to singer and pianist Annette Warren. They had met at a recording session in the 40’s and again in the 50’s. The second time they clicked and soon had a family with four children. They used to appear together on TV shows and clubs and also teamed up to record for Capitol and also for the Outstanding label. Later, Paul and Annette were on the road for four years with a show titled “A Marriage of Music and Mirth”.
In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, his trio (usually featuring bassist Monte Budwig and drummer Frank Capp) performed at the Hong Kong Bar at the Century Plaza Hotel and at nightclubs in Southern California, including The Velvet Turtle in Redondo Beach.
Paul’s versatility was one of his major qualities, which allowed her to enjoy the challenges and opportunities of studio work. “I enjoyed the variety of music, not just playing the same 34 songs every night,” he told the Idaho Statesman in 2006. “Accompanying all kinds of singers —jazz, country, bossa nova— was so much more fun than sitting in a club every night.”
Smith remained an active player appearing regularly at the Terranea Resort in Palos Verdes until his death on June 29, 2013 in Torrance, California at the age of 91 from heart failure.
—Jordi Pujol (Taken from the inside liner notes of "The Complete Liquid Sounds Sessions 1954-1958" FSRCD 1129)
