Johnny Smith

**Flyin' Brian** · 03-07-2011, 02:05 PM

Johnny Smith was the first jazz guitarist I heard back in the late 1950s.

He still blows me away today. Wonderful chord voicings, super chops, great ideas and sweet tone.

His Complete Roost Box set gets a lot of play on my iTunes.

**monk** · 03-07-2011, 02:30 PM

In several interviews I've read over the years, Smith stated that his primary guitar influences were Django Reinhardt and Andres Segovia. As such, I've always thought of him as a logical entension to Django's legacy; more so than many of today's Gypsy Jazz players.

His precise technique echoes that of both Reinhardt and Segovia, while utilising ornamented arpeggios and classically informed chordal voice leading. These attributes, I think, made Smith stand out as such a unique player on electric guitar at a time when most other guitarists were following the path that Charlie Christian blazed.

When I started playing, the Roost albums were out of print and all I could find were the three Verve LPs. The Mosaic box set of the Roost recordings is a treasure beyond price. I never tire of them.

Regards,
monk

**paynow** · 03-07-2011, 02:37 PM

I love Johnny's playing. It always amazes me that in interviews he states that he never considered himself a jazz player. I guess he isn't in the traditional sense. That "Walk Don't Run" CD and "Moonlight In Vermont" are favorites. I didn't know there was a Mosaic Box so I'll have to get that, not to mention the Tal Mosaic Box!

I have a friend who doesn't really care for jazz guitar but loves to play surf rock type stuff and digs the "Ventures". I love explaining to him that their most famous tune was written by Johnny Smith, someone he's never heard of, and how it was based on the changes to "Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise", a tune he's never heard of. And, that the tune was originally called "Opus" by Johnny; I think the engineer gave it the name "Walk Don't Run" (the only "Opus" my friend knows is the comic strip character). And how Johnny's response to the royalties he gets from it is sort of a casual "Oh, yeah, that tune" type of thing. My friend gets all upset and says to me "You jazz guys want to take credit for everything!" LOL.

Such a great all around musician and don't even get me started on those close voicings he plays.

**monk** · 03-07-2011, 02:50 PM

paynow,
You won't be disappointed in the Mosaic box set. It's called The Complete Roost Johnny Smith Small Group Sessions. Eight CDs.

It doesn't have the two albums he did with singers or the heavily arranged "with strings" albums. But it does include The Man with the Blue Guitar which is arguably one of the great solo guitar recordings of the 20th Century, if not all time.

Regards,
monk

**Drumbler** · 03-07-2011, 10:36 PM

Johnny Smith was great. Those stretch chord voicings he used are impossible!

Interestingly enough he did not consider himself a jazz guitarist and in most cases did not play improvised solos. Everything was pre-arranged.

What a good man too. He gave up the performing side of his life to care for his young daughter after his wife died. Great guy.

**63Bigsby** · 03-08-2011, 04:08 AM

I have a couple of dozen transcriptions by JS, and of course all the books, including the 50's Guitar Interpretations. Tuff stuff but oh so rewarding once you go through them ( no I haven't gone through all of them, just scratched the surface

). Some of the close voiced chords are just impossible for my small hands to reach, but I was surprised that most of it comes pretty naturally. The dropped D tuning opens up a whole new world. I love JS's single note stuff, but the chord melodies are my favorite. I think his version of When I Fall In Love is probably the prettiest thing ever, simple and elegant. The whole album that includes WIFIL is my favorite JS work.

**monk** · 03-10-2011, 04:46 PM

I forgot to mention it the other day but in 1961, Chet Atkins produced an album on singer/songwriter Don Gibson for RCA entitled Girls, Guitars and Gibson.

I've never heard it but it's notable in that Chet had Johnny Smith, Hank Garland and Harold Bradley all playing on the recording. Howzat for a lineup?

By the way, Don Gibson was considered to be a good rhythm man who routinely made use of L-5s and Super 400s. Toward the end of his life he acquired a Selmer Modele Jazz that he used.

**63Bigsby** · 03-13-2011, 06:38 AM

I have that album, it's by no means a jazz record, but rather typical Nashville sound pop country. All three players are playing nylon strings classical guitars, often in three part harmonies. I like it, Don Gibson is a big favorite of mine, and yes he was a good rhythm player. Many of his hits kick off with his arch top strumming. He was a big arch top fan and I think he had one of Django's guitars too.

**brad4d8** · 03-13-2011, 08:47 AM

Originally Posted by monk

I forgot to mention it the other day but in 1961, Chet Atkins produced an album on singer/songwriter Don Gibson for RCA entitled Girls, Guitars and Gibson....
By the way, Don Gibson was considered to be a good rhythm man who routinely made use of L-5s and Super 400s. Toward the end of his life he acquired a Selmer Modele Jazz that he used.

There was also an LP,probably produced by Atkins, that had Gibson paired with Los Indios Tabajaras. I haven't listened to it in years,so I'll have to pull it out and give it a spin soon. The cover is worth a look, if only for the big old Archtop and los Indios outifts.

Brad

**guelda** · 03-17-2011, 12:47 PM

Originally Posted by Drumbler

Interestingly enough he did not consider himself a jazz guitarist and in most cases did not play improvised solos. Everything was pre-arranged.

Very interesting, this is what I thought some time ago but one great player told me he could improvise (and of course he could ! Check his few vids on youtube) so I thought I was wrong.

I'm still wondering about this, because there are some songs on which I believe he's improvising, and some I'm not too sure. Do you have any source which could confirm this or give additional info please ?

Cheers
Guelda

**monk** · 03-17-2011, 02:44 PM

Every major jazz artist who ever worked with or knew Johnny Smith considered him to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists who ever lived. I would find it hard to believe that anyone could play multiple
extended engagements at Birdland and play the same solos night after night. It may be that he didn't consider himself a jazz player because he worked in the NBC Studios doing other types of music. I've heard people who knew him say that he was a top flight improvisor. To make the blanket statement that everything he played was pre-arranged is, in my opinion, a bit reckless.

Most great improvisors, including Charlie Parker, made their reputations on the bandstand while playing much more conservatively in the studio. From the late 1940s on, jazz records were niche items that didn't sell in large numbers and budgets had to be considered. Then, as now, when the red light went on; time became money. When recording in the 78RPM format, players had to get to the point. Extended imporovisation on record did not become the norm until the recording industry and the general public embraced the 33 RPM LP technology.

**63Bigsby** · 03-18-2011, 04:37 AM

^I so agree with you! This got me to dig out a tape I acquired years ago; it's a Johnny Smith Quartet "home made" live recording from a club in Colorado Springs in -81. Despite of the amateurish sound quality ( somebody probably just had a walkman on the table in the bar ) the music is outstanding and JS is in top form playing extended solos. The best thing is that most of the songs are ones that he never recorded commercially. There's no way anyone can claim that this isn't jazz guitar playing at its' best.

**basile865** · 03-26-2011, 10:55 AM

Whats up everyone? New to the forum here.

I had to post on Johnny Smith - he's one of my favorites. His chords sound like he had a 6th finger on his left hand!

My parents have an old record thats just called Johnny Smith and its on verve. He does a cover of the Beatles "Yesterday" and the last couple chords he ends with were so pretty I had to learn them. Learning stuff on vinyl talk about a pain!

I'm a little bit theory challenged you could say, but I think he was using whats called pitch axis where you keep one or two different notes the same through your chord progression, but the chords are all very different. Its a great effect.

**monk** · 03-26-2011, 07:10 PM

basile865,
The effect with chords that you are referring to is called common tones. A common tone is held in the soprano voice while the harmony moves underneath. Johnny Smith was a master of this technique.

Pitch axis is when a tonic bass note is held or repeated while melodies derived from different scales/modes with the same tonic are played over the bass. It's a Joe Satriani thing.
Regards,
monk

**basile865** · 03-26-2011, 08:40 PM

Hey Monk,

Thanks for the correction there. So essentially common tone is holding a higher note the same while harmony moves beneath it, and pitch axis is holding a lower note the same while the chord progression moves above it? Its strange that those would be considered two different concepts.

I actually had some lessons with Oteil Burbridge - he was the first person I saw do that and I absolutely loved how it completely changed the feel with every change, yet they were all "legal" Its like with every change a different color or emotion fires off in your brain. Very cool stuff.

**monk** · 03-26-2011, 08:47 PM

When the bass note stays the same and the chords move above the bass it's usually called pedal point.

Here's a link to a pitch axis article:
Pitch axis theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**basile865** · 03-26-2011, 09:02 PM

hmmm....now I'm really confused. I'm not advanced enough to get the difference between a pedal point and pitch axis. But I guess really the thing I love to use is called common tones.

**bkdavidson** · 03-27-2011, 12:25 AM

I have that record too! That arrangement of 'Yesterday' is great. What did you figure out for those chords? I've tried to figure them out, but it doesn't work out so well.

**basile865** · 03-27-2011, 03:38 PM

Ok here is what I got..........I hope you can read it. Any string I wrote an O above means play it open, any string with an X above it means muted. I'm not sure if thats standard for chord chart but I just wanted to make sure it was clear. Then I wrote the fret number next to the root for each......if you can't read those numbers its 2, 1, 7, 5, 5, 3, 3, 1, 2.

Oh and for some of those chords - mainly the second one - those stacked notes are played with one finger - two notes for the ring finger and two for the pinky.

Hopefully this makes sense!

**63Bigsby** · 03-28-2011, 04:26 AM

Are you guys aware of the old Decca LP Jazz Studio #1?? It's a studio jam session LP with just two songs on it, Tenderly & Let's Split. JS is on guitar and appears under a pseudo Sir Jonathan Gasser. Tenderly in particular is wonderful; it opens with JS going through the whole theme as solo, then the rhythm section kicks in with Hank Jones' piano and each soloist takes a lengthy break until midway when they launch intoa double tempo. Finally it ends, again, with just JS on solo. Let's Split is a fast be bop blues and everyone takes lengthy solos on it. There were I believe 5 albums in that series, JS was only on the first one, Howard Roberts is on 2 & 3 but the #1 is my personal favorite.

**Drumbler** · 04-04-2011, 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by guelda

Very interesting, this is what I thought some time ago but one great player told me he could improvise (and of course he could ! Check his few vids on youtube) so I thought I was wrong.

I'm still wondering about this, because there are some songs on which I believe he's improvising, and some I'm not too sure. Do you have any source which could confirm this or give additional info please ?

Cheers
Guelda

I read this in a Johnny Smith interview but I don't know which.

Of course Johnny Smith could improvise but he said his studio recordings were pre-arranged. The guy was great.

Unlike some other artists who just played over a tune or chord progression and came up with something on the spot, perhaps requiring several takes to get something suitable. Even creating new songs on the spot which they named later.

Johnny Smith was a perfectionist. He gave up playing the guitar because he could not maintain his playing to his own high standard due to limited playing time.

**bachplay6** · 05-10-2011, 11:08 AM

Hello all, I'm new to jazz guitar although I've been playing blues and rock for some time. As I listen to the greats and read forums, I see where some of you are able to describe a person's style such as the choice of progressions etc. My question is what do you think the style for J. Smith was? What differentiated him from Montgomery or Pass? I find I really like his music.

Thanks,

Bruce

**mr. beaumont** · 05-10-2011, 12:33 PM

Johnny, of course, didn't really consider himself a jazz player...but he was a monster nonetheless.

Johnny had a very clean, articulate style less rooted in the blues than some (Johnny would often play classical pieces on his steel string and had a long career in network bands)

There's nothing about the choice of progressions, really, a song is a song. Guys sub/reharm different ways, but their tone, sense of swing, and note choice over those chords are the most instantly identifiable differences. Johnny seems to draw from swing, uses dense, painistic clusters for chords (some of which involve some AMAZING stretches) and like I said before, is decidedly less bluesy in phrasing and note choice.

**NSJ** · 05-10-2011, 12:48 PM

Master of the "closed chord" voicings, master of chord melody, beautiful bordering on gorgeous tone and legato phrasing. As my teacher calls him, quit simply, the "Segovia of the Electric Guitar".