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The Glenn Smith Story
(1927-1992)
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(from my perspective) by Ron Swindall
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 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 fully 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. My
grandmother always remembered Glenn's compliments to her cooking when we stopped
at her house in Burdine, KY on the way back. 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. We only saw Glenn occasionally in those days but everyone knew and respected
him well. I didn't realize how lucky I was to have the privilege of
knowing him and playing music with him.
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 that he played with.
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. 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. 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 venues! 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 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 or
other gig spot in Tennessee. 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, Dave Tipton, J.D. Collier).
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.
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 it 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.
The last group that Glenn had the opportunity to play with was The
Jerome Street Ramblers, another long lasting local group that has
been going strong since 1990. His influence can still be heard in
the band today as they continue to play his arrangements. Band leader
Dave Tipton tells 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 is another that has been 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 finished
at the post office he wanted to work with the band kids. He said
there was no reason why a large number of local kids shouldn't be all-state,
with the benefit of private instruction.
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.