Jabbo Smith (December 24, 1908 – January 16, 1991) was an American jazz musician, known for his virtuoso playing on the trumpet. He had a short but exceedingly important recording career in the late 1920’s when he became the first trumpeter to seriously challenge Louis Armstrong with a virtuosity which was years ahead of its time. His work had a direct influence on Roy Eldridge, a pivotal figure in the development of Modern Jazz. He accomplished virtually all of his most significant work by the time he turned 21, yet lived to be 82.
Smith was born Cladys Smith in Pembroke, Georgia on Christmas Eve in 1908, the son of a barber and church organist. After the death of his father when Jabbo was very young he moved , at age four, to Savannah. His mother found it increasingly difficult to care for him and at age six Jabbo was placed into the Jenkins Orphanage Home in Charleston, South Carolina,. It was here that he learned trumpet and trombone and by the age of 10 was touring with the Jenkins Band. After unsuccessfully attempting to leave the institution a number of times, Jabbo finally left for good at the age of sixteen and headed north to make his mark on music. He made a promise to his mother never to work for less than one hundred dollars a week, a good wage in those days.
He began playing in bands in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, before making his base in Manhattan, New York City. During 1925-1928 he was with Charlie Johnson's Paradise Ten, a top New York jazz group that made some classic recordings. Smith was on a recording session with Duke Ellington in 1927 resulting in a memorable version of "Black and Tan Fantasy.Jabbo turned down an opportunity to join the Ellington Orchestra because he was offered only $65 per week.We can only lament the loss of the marvelous music that this collaboration would have produced!
From February to May, 1928, Smith joined the pit band of the Broadway show Keep Shufflin’, playing with Fats Waller (organ), James P. Johnson (piano), and Garvin Bushnell (alto). He recorded four sides with this group under the name of the Louisiana Sugar Babes.Jabbo was stranded in Chicago in 1929 while on the road with Keep Shufflin’ following the gangland killing of Arnold Rothstein, the financier of the show and also known as the infamous fixer of the 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” World Series. By this time Jabbo was a seasoned creative Jazz musician and Chicago had plenty of work.
At the request of Mayo Williams of the Brunswick Record Company of Chicago he formed his Rhythm Aces, a quintet with which he recorded nineteen sides from January to August 1929. In these works Jabbo displays extraordinary virtuosity and exemplary musicianship on trumpet as well as vocal. Possibly, because the work was too advanced or sophisticated, the records were not accepted by the public and have, until recently, been largely forgotten. Of much more importance however, was the fact the these records attracted the attention of Roy Eldridge, who adopted some of Jabbo’s technically explosive, chance-taking speed in the high register and explorative style into his own playing.
But,
although Jabbo Smith at the time was considered a close competitor of Louis
Armstrong, he had hit his peak. His unreliability, excessive drinking, and
unprofessional attitude resulted in lost jobs, missed opportunities, and a
steep decline. In March 1935, in Chicago, Smith was featured in a recording
session produced by Helen Oakley under the name of Charles LaVere & His
Chicagoans. After playing with one of Claude Hopkins' lesser orchestras during
1936-1938, Smith settled in Milwaukee and became a part-time player. This
became his main base for many years, alternating with returns to New York. In
Milwaukee he collaborated with saxophonist Bill Johnson. Subsequently, Smith
dropped out of the public eye, playing music part-time in Milwaukee with a
regular job at an automobile hire company.
Finally, around 1960, Jabbo was rediscovered. He subsequently recorded two albums (his style a mere shadow of his former heights) and in 1979 was a guest artist in the musical One Mo’ Time which opened to rave reviews. He also made appearances at several Jazz festivals, toured Europe and performed at the West End Cafe, the Bottom Line and the Village Vanguard, all in New York. One of his last public performances was in Berlin in 1986 where he greatly impressed Don Cherry, the avant-garde trumpeter.
(Edited
from Syncopated Times, Wikipedia & AllMusic)