Buster Smith

Henry ' Buster ' Smith, called Professor Smith ( born August 24, 1904 in Alsdorf, Texas, † 10 August 1991, Dallas ) was an American jazz musician ( saxophone ( alto, tenor ), bandleader and arranger of the Swing).

Smith came from a musical family, his father played guitar and his mother was Kirchenorganistin. He is said to have played with four years at the family home organ and also learned to play guitar, alto saxophone and clarinet. He earned the money for his first clarinet by picking cotton ( he should have it picked 2000 pounds in five days ), and was able in 1922 to support his family with his work as a musician soon after moving to Dallas. He played at Voodie White Trio in Dallas and in 1923 in "medicine shows", which are particularly arrived on volume. 1925 heard him Hot Lips Page by the "Blue Devils ", whose sound he contributed significantly. After Walter Page 1931 gave up the management of the band, he led them to the singer Ernest Williams ' 13 Original Blue Devils " on.

After the end of 1933 he moved, inter alia, Lester Young with the band of Bennie Moten, where he supplemented with Young on tenor saxophone. After the death of Moten 1935, he headed with the Count Basie octet " Barons of Rhythm " in the Reno Club in Kansas City ( with Walter Page, Hot Lips Page, Lester Young, Jack Washington), which in 1936 joined Eddie Durham ( as Arranger ). Mid-1930s, he was the mentor and teacher of Charlie Parker in Kansas City, and he got along well with Charlie Christian, which he already knew from Texas. Smith was not only a sought-after soloist, but incidentally also a composer and arranger eg at Moten ( allegedly even an early form of " One O 'Clock Jump" by him to be). Smith accompanied Basie not to New York, but continued to work with his own band, the Paradise Orchestra, in the Midwest. Later, when he also went to New York, he arranged among others for Gene Krupa, Basie and Benny Carter. With Don Redman, Pete Johnson (on "Jump for Joy " in 1939, with Hot Lips Page ) and Eddie Durham ( 1940) he played ( on recordings ). In 1941, he returned to Texas back, played in local bands, composed, arranged and taught. In 1959, he took his only recording under his own name in Fort Worth for Atlantic Records on ( " The legendary Buster Smith ", new to cooking 1999). After a car accident in the 1960s, he had to give up his instrument. He switched to bass guitar and played up in the 1980s in a hotel band.

He can be seen in Bruce Ricker documentary about the Kansas City Jazz The Last of the Blue Devils in 1980.

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