Al Smith (November 23, 1923 – February 7, 1974) was an American songwriter, band leader and record producer from Chicago.
Albert B. Smith was born in Bolivar County, Mississippi. His family moved to Pace, Mississippi, in 1927. He danced with a jug band on the streets of Rosedale, Mississippi, when he was 7. He learned how to play the string bass in a school band after hearing Big Joe Williams and other Delta bluesmen at his mother's barrelhouse.
After shipping out with the Merchant Marine in 1940, he arrived in Chicago in 1943. In 1945 he started what he referred to as a "bebop" band. According to Rowe, it had 8 pieces plus blues singer Tiny Topsy. Smith and band were working on the South Side sporadically playing at various Clubs and Lounge bars until June 1948 when he was playing as Al Smith and the Band that Rocks at the Sawdust Trail. It was after the Sawdust Trail gig that Smith latched onto something steadier. He reappeared in June 1949 with an "indefinite" deal with the Apex Club in Robbins, Illinois.
Between the Fall of 1952 and the Spring of 1959, Al Smith had recording sessions sewed up at four different independent labels in Chicago. He led house bands at Chance (1952-1954), Parrot/Blue Lake (1953-1955), United and States (1953-1956), and, most importantly, Vee-Jay (1954-1959) where he ran the house band. His primary employment in all cases was backing vocal groups, plus an occasional solo singer who didn't have a band. Instrumental tracks (except in the case of his valedictory session in 1959) were done during the studio time left over from vocal sessions.
Among the better-known Chicago musicians who worked with Al Smith were Sonny Cohn, Booby Floyd, Red Holloway, Harold Ashby, Johnny Board, Leon Washington, Eddie Johnson, Lucius Washington (Little Wash), Von Freeman, Mac Easton, Horace Palm, Norman Simmons, Willie Jones, Sun Ra, Lefty Bates, Matt Murphy, Quinn Wilson, Vernel Fournier, Paul Gusman, and Alrock "Al" Duncan.
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| Al Smith 1957 |
Smith booked club dates with some regularlty through the first half of 1956, but worked just one gig as a leader in 1957, after which essentially retired from the Chicago club scene. He hung up his studio bandleader role in 1959, as Vee-Jay moved toward "middle of the road" accompaniment provided by Riley Hampton, a schooled arranger. In his later days, Al Smith was Jimmy Reed's manager and bandleader, then, after Vee-Jay folded in 1966, Reed quickly resurfaced at ABC Bluesway, where Smith became a producer. Smith handled sessions by Reed, John Lee Hooker, and other blues and R&B artists. Al Smith's business relationship with Jimmy Reed ended in 1971.
During the frenetic final days of ABC, Smith inked a 25-LP production deal in 1973 with the reactivated Bluesway operation. Twenty of these albums subsequently appeared. They were generally regarded as slapdash affairs, but they provided an opportunity for many bluesmen to record for a major label.
Al Smith died in Chicago, on February 7, 1974, of a heart attack. He had been suffering for some time from heart disease and diabetes.
(Edited from Robert Campbell’s Al Smith discography)