The Glenn Smith Story (1927-1992)

Glenn's life story is both sad and happy.  He loved his family, and was very proud of all of his children. Music was one of his greatest joys.  He loved to listen, play, share, teach, arrange, and talk about music.  His appreciation for the talents of Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Charlie Byrd, Paul Desmond, Dizzy Gillespie, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, and Les Brown, Lionell Hampton, Maynard Furgeson, Guy Lombardo, Quincy Jones, Doc Severenson, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and countless others was a love and respect for musicians rarely found today. This biography is a story about some of Glenn's musical career.

    I met Glenn for the first time in about 1960 and was immediately taken by his manner.  He struck me as a very easy going fellow with a great deal of consideration for others. And he was cool! I was still 16 years old so I didn't appreciate his musical talents for what they were at the time because  I didn't really understand jazz and the big band sound.  Glenn was definitely not a rock 'n roller but over the years he became proficient in all types of popular music and exceptional in jazz.  He was writer, arranger, performer and functional musician extraordinaire.  I was in a rock band called The Wildcats at the time with Sidney Amburgey, Fred Adkins, and Donnie Mullins.  Kenneth Duncan had been playing tenor sax with us and needed to be off occasionally.  Glenn and Kenneth were old friends.  They had gone to school together at Norton High School and had played music together for a long time.  Ken recommended Glenn to us as his replacement when he was unavailable.  The first gig with him was a UMWA Fish Fry at the Breaks of the Mountain Interstate Park.  I rode with Glenn in his car. We played on the back of a flatbed truck that day and had a great time.   Everything worked out fine since he was easily familiar with the standard tunes that we had been playing to take up the slack in our early rock 'n roll repertoire.  Plus, he began the teaching process immediately.  Glenn, in his manner, however, would always say that he learned more from us. My grandmother always remembered Glenn's compliments to her cooking when we stopped at her home in Burdine, KY on the way back.  We only saw Glenn occasionally in those days but everyone knew and respected him well.  

Glenn Smith occasionally played a gig with the Wildcats in the early'60s.  Seen here at the Holly Ball in the Jefferson Lounge at C.V.C (now UVA-Wise) in 1962, are L to R: Coy Boggs (Bass), Glenn Smith (Sax), Ron Swindall (Lead Guitar), Fred Adkins (Guitar and Vocals), Sidney Amburgey (Piano and Vocals), and Donnie Mullins (Drums and Vocals).  Other gigs with the Wildcats included CLUB SCOTTY and the Cumberland Ky VFW.

    But Glenn's musical career began long before I knew him.  He was born in Norton, VA in September, 1927 and grew up on 11th Street. He attended elementary school and high school in Norton where he was an excellent student, athlete, and musician.  Glenn was asked one time to tell about his earliest recollections of music in his life.  As is many times the case, his fascination with music began at home and in church.  He remembered listening intently to his father sing in the choir at the First Baptist Church in Norton, and he was particularly drawn to the big sound of the pipe organ.  Later, it was the radio, as he listened to the sounds of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Glen Miller and others of that era.
    

Glenn actually began learning to play at age eleven, on a $30 second-hand saxophone.  By the age of fourteen, he had his own band which was playing on WNVA every week, as well as traveling to Jenkins, Pikeville and Bristol to perform.  He often talked about some of those early musicians that he played with... C.B. Porter, Jack Barton, Neil Barton, Marilyn Barton Browning, Paris Barton, Lee Shelton, Joe Cooch, his brother Herman Smith (who he nicknamed 'Pete') and his good friend Kenny Duncan who was one of the last musicians with whom he played.  His bands at that time used some stock arrangements for their music, but even then Glenn was re-writing intros and endings and arranging whole tunes for the band.  In the '90s Shannon's Restaurant in Wise, VA boasted a rather large collection of pictures of local musicians, starting with the big band era and continuing through the years until recently.  At one time you could find a couple of pictures there of his first efforts as a professional musician, playing either sax or piano.

        When he was fifteen, Glenn went to New York City to visit his brother, Bruce, who was in the service at that time.  He had the opportunity to hear Doris Day singing at the Hotel Pennsylvania with the Les Brown Band.  He spoke with Doris that night and got her autograph.  While on this trip Glenn also saw and heard Duke Ellington, Don Byas, and Ben Webster.  This is where Glenn began to have an insight into the expression of jazz, and to see the possibility of conversation between musicians, not in words, but through music.  At this moment, he realized that he someday wanted to try to be right in the middle of all of the happenings in the "big apple".  I remember one of Glenn's expressions on the set while playing with others when someone was taking a ride... "Yeah man, talk to me now. Mmmmhmmm, I hear you."

        Glenn was elected "King" at his high school senior prom.  His band was hired to play for the prom, so the only dance he had that evening was the one which was dedicated to him and the young lady who was selected as "Queen".

He enlisted in the army when he was nineteen.  He played drums in an army marching band and sax in a smaller combo.

    
       Then in Germany after the war, he was placed in charge of the dance band, a job which he dearly loved.  In addition to other places, they played in Frankfurt, and on Hitler's captured yacht as it sailed the Rhineland.

He returned to Norton after he was discharged and worked in the post office until 1949.  At this time he took advantage of the GI Bill and was accepted into the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.  His dream was to become an arranger and composer for movies and TV.  He studied under Pete Mondello one of the veteran members of the Woody Herman Band.  Glenn respected Pete a great deal and gave him credit for "straightening out" his horn playing and having an influence on his style.  The Woody Herman Band was one of Glenn's favorites.  I remember with great fondness playing Glenn's lively arrangement of "The Preacher" when I played with him in the Virginians during the 60's and 70's.

    While in New York he got an 802 card which gave him membership in the very selective New York Federation of Musicians, and he played in a band led by Joe Barone from the Conservatory.  He told about playing all over Long Island, in resorts in the Poconos and all the way to Oklahoma.

    Glenn's father became ill in 1951 and family responsibilities brought Glenn back home to Norton where he again worked at the Post Office.  He never complained but his dreams faded as he was obligated to care for his family in Norton, but he continued to love music and tried to perform wherever he could.

    A few years later, he was called by Charles Goodwin with the news that the Glen Miller band was touring the South and that they needed a sax player.  He went and played with one of the bands of his dreams but was unable to stay on the road because of personal health problems.  The rigorous schedule was too much for his diabetes.  Glenn said jokingly of some of Glen Miller's hand written arrangements that it looked like "chicken scratching across the page".

    Glenn was my music teacher and good friend.  To all who knew him, he was a quietly intelligent, patient, kind, gentle and considerate gentleman, and one of the finest musicians to hail from Southwest Virginia.  He did not play the music of the mountains, but of the world and the stage, so he was not well know among many of the folks in our area, which is unfortunate.  Even though we should be very proud of our mountain heritage and music, we should not let it blind us to the multiple talents found in other styles!  Glenn Smith was a wonderful talent, he had an immense love for music, sought no fame for himself, and had a passion for sharing what he knew with others.

    When I started my teaching career in 1965 at Appalachia High School, Joe Flanary had formed a new variety band of local musicians called The Virginians, and he asked me to join, to try to help expand the band's variety to include rock 'n roll.  Glenn was playing occasionally with this group, and sharing his time with the Hal Salmon Band. He gave Hal his notice and began playing full time with  The Virginians in the spring of 1966.  I once again had the luck of being associated with Glenn Smith!  In this band, he mostly played alto sax, which was definitely his best instrument, but he also contributed greatly with his own style on tenor sax, clarinet and piano.  This band survived longer than most such groups ever stay together.  The Virginians functioned as a professional band well into the '70's.  The success was due, in large part, to Glenn's teaching and arrangements, and to the hard work of Joe Flanary as he both played trombone and managed the bookings for the group.  That, in itself, is another story.  The band played everything from bluegrass to country and western,  rock and blues, jazz and big band tunes, show tunes, a polka or a college fight song.

The road trips were another story and it would take a book to tell them all.  Being a diabetic meant that Glenn needed to stop for food and coffee (which he loved with a drop of saccharin).  Sometimes it meant a 3:00AM stop at Bolling's truck stop or Peggy's restaurant in Kingsport after a gig at the Moose Club, Elk's Club, Eastman Cabin, Ridgefield Country Club, ETSU, Kingsport Fine Arts Center, or one of the other gig spots in Tennessee, Virginia or Kentucky.  Occasionally we would stop at Bertha's ("greasy spoon") in Appalachia. The camaraderie was wonderful and has become nostalgic to all of the originals that are left... Ron Flanary, Buddy Stewart, Mark Wooten, J.D. Collier and me (Ron Swindall).  

One of Glenn's favorite things to do was to listen to late night radio, especially the jazz on WRVA from Richmond.  I can picture him now as he hummed along with the tunes and played "brushes" with his hands on the dashboard of the car.  He marveled at the great musicians and complimented their styles and abilities as he explained rhythms and chord changes to me.

Glenn loved a small drink of alcohol occasionally.  His ideal drink was "two fingers" of gin, as he held up his index and middle finger side by side to illustrate what he wanted.  He was NOT a "womanizer" but he would occasionally make a remark when we saw a particularly attractive young lady, "Man, if I was only 15 years younger...". 
    

Glenn's priceless contributions to The Virginians were his beautiful friendship, his untiring music instruction to us all, his wonderful musical performance, and his never ending flow of unique written scores and arrangements for everything from "Moonlight Serenade" to "Take The A Train".  The versatility of the group made the band a choice of country clubs throughout the area, but due to the shortage of night spots in Southwest Virginia, The Virginians traveled into Kentucky and Tennessee for most gigs.  Glenn's comment about the group was that "we were not as schooled as some of the big city bands, but we were an all around good band".

After The Virginians finally split and we went our separate ways, Glenn continued to play music and help others learn the joy of playing.  In the 80's he traveled and played with a group called Southwinds  which was comprised of several excellent musicians and was led by trumpet player, Jim Hurt and another - Jazz Virginia, seen here.

The last group that Glenn had the opportunity to play with was The Jerome Street Ramblers, another long lasting local group that had been going strong since 1990.   Band leader Dave Tipton told me that Glenn reluctantly joined the group in 1991, telling him that they didn't really need him.  He didn't care for the style of the newly formed group.  But Glenn's interest began to peak when he noticed that Dave and the others were interested in expanding their horizons to include some big band arrangements and more jazz tunes.  This band was another that became relatively popular because of the variety of music that they play.

    One of Glenn's goals was to help youngsters realize their potential in music.  He always said that when he retired at the post office he wanted to work with the band kids.  He said that with the benefit of private instruction, there was no reason why a large number of local kids shouldn't be all-state,  and he helped to make that happen.

Glenn reported to his last music practice session with the Ramblers in Ted Thompson's basement on Dec. 17, 1992, responsible and dedicated as usual, even though he was feeling poorly and reported to the members of the band that he was probably coming down with something.  On that evening, Ted's little two year old granddaughter, Rachael, crawled into Glenn's lap and sat for two hours as he played piano for the last time.  She was the last person to be mesmerized and captured by the magic of watching and listening to him play.  Bill Duckworth drove Glenn to his home on Spruce Avenue after practice.  Glenn passed away on that night, leaving a music legacy behind of which we all are very proud to have been a part.

Back in 1980, Mark Wooten and I had a vision that the wonderful solo improvisations of Glenn Smith should become a small piece of history.  Our first recordings were done on a four channel machine and included Glenn, Mark, Jimmy Stallard, Terry Collier, Greg Edwards and me.  More recordings were done in the next few years and included Kenny Duncan and Tuck Robinson.  In 1986, Glenn, Mark and I, along with Sutton Rigg and Richard Kennedy decided to get even more serious about the Glenn Smith recordings.  We recorded 6 more songs on 16 track analog, featuring Glenn's solos.  The only other musician who helped us was Jimmy Baird, who laid down the bass for us on "Green Dolphin Street".  All recordings were later converted to digital and mixed down on DAT, then sent to National Tape and CD Corp. in Nashville for commercial duplication.  All of the musicians who played on these recordings with Glenn consider themselves fortunate to have been a part of one of the most significant jazz documentations to come from Southwest Virginia.  The Glenn Smith album, called "The Genius of Glenn Smith - The Man Who Talked With His Horn", was published and released after his death.  It is the only high quality documentation of Glenn's outstanding solos on alto saxophone.  It is a one-of-a-kind keepsake.  The album was engineered and produced by Ron Swindall, licensed through Harry Fox of New York, and is a copyright product of Fallen Stars Records, all tracks were recorded at Homestead Recording Studio before the studio moved from Norton to Powell Valley, near Big Stone Gap, VA in 1989. 

Various correspondence and other information about the life of Glenn Smith from people who knew him:

Dear Ron:

Dear Doug and Judy Turpin:
Thank you for your interest and support of Glenn Smith's legacy in
music. It is my goal to collect as much information and recorded
music as possible and keep it all alive as long as possible. I am
so thankful that we recorded several tracks in the 80s.
It seems that we may have met, or I may have heard Glenn mention
your name. I would like to know about your connection with Glenn
as friends, colleagues, musicians, schoolmates, neighbors, or
whatever. (IF you are open to sharing it with me). So, if you
don't mind, tell me some about yourselves. I'm always open to
expanding the biography of Glenn that I have written to include the
names and details of folks he knew.
I did receive your order today (Saturday). I will try to send your
CD on Monday, and I hope you enjoy the music and the liners in the
booklet.
Thank you.
Ron

Ron
You are right we probably do know each other.
I was the band director in Norton in the mid-1960 for two years. I
followed Bob Welch and Mr. Tate.
I met Mr. Smith on several occasions and heard him play 'Take Five'
in the band room at Norton High School. I was struck with his sound
and his musicality. Unfortunately for me, I never found the time to
really get to know him.
Throughout my travels in music and education I have always told the
story of one of the great musicians that I met in a small town in
Virginia, who was in fact the mailman. For more than forty years I
have remembered this man and his music and wondered if it was my
imagination or real. After hearing your recording, I know now that I
had the privilege of meeting one of the greats. I will treasure your
CD and thank you for the recording, which I think is excellent.
By the way, I rented some land and had a garden in Big Stone Gap when
I was in Norton. I wonder if Bud Absher and his wife are still
living? Recently I spoke with Linvelle Reed and he said that Buddy
Stewart is the Norton Band Director. I remember Buddy as an excellent
student and a fine musician. Some others that I recall are Triplett
and Joe Flannery.
Thanks again.
Douglas L. Turpin, professor emeritus
University of Missouri-St. Louis