The Chetboard

Sadly, one of the all time greats, Johnny Smith has passed away.
A great artist...a greater man. Please keep Johnny's family and friends in your prayers.

"Walk, Don't Run" is an instrumental composition written and first recorded by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith in 1954.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBBDCV2Fzno

Then Chet did it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W57f5RU-6xM

The Ventures heard Chet and then they did it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owq7hgzna3E

No one played with more musical taste than Johnny. He could play as fast as anyone if he wanted, but even the fast runs would have sounded great slowed down. His chord voicings were beautiful and fluid.

He is missed.

What's odd (or sad) is that I can't find any mention of his passing. Not even in the Colorado Springs or Denver newspapers.

George Beasley wrote:No one played with more musical taste than Johnny. He could play as fast as anyone if he wanted, but even the fast runs would have sounded great slowed down. His chord voicings were beautiful and fluid.

He is missed.

I agree. Johnny Smith was amazing and tasteful in his playing. He just had the touch. Here is one of my favorite Johnny Smith songs - Black is the Color". One of the books or one of the Quarterly issues that John Knowles published has a great finger style arrangement of the song.
Ray

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucJzsJwyZxI

Norm wrote:What's odd (or sad) is that I can't find any mention of his passing. Not even in the Colorado Springs or Denver newspapers.

Yes, this is rather strange, however he apparently just passed away yesterday, and sometimes the news media is a little slow on the uptake.

Wikipedia mentions his death on their site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Smith

I first heard of Johnny Smith back when I was taking lessons, he wrote the forward to the Joe Fava guitar method books. I thought he looked kinda like Mr. Rogers.

Years later I found a double cd (his pieces and also George Van Eps) and loved it! Got his "Approach to guitar" book and ocassionally check it out. Great player, RIP sir.

David Elliott wrote:

Norm wrote:What's odd (or sad) is that I can't find any mention of his passing. Not even in the Colorado Springs or Denver newspapers.

While not an obituary per se, this article covers much of Johnny's life and career.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013 ... r-has-died

I met Mr. Smith only once, at a music store in West Denver where he was giving a workshop on jazz guitar back in the mid sixties. Very personable and courteous man.

David

That works. That's what I was wondering about.

I was 17 when I wrote Johnny Smith a letter asking if I could take a lesson. I ended up spending a couple of hours with him. He essentially interviewed me to see what I knew and then gave me a list of topics to pursue. Apart from the advice he gave me, he put me at ease and took me seriously.

The NPR story that David Elliot posted has some good musical clips plus Johnny talking about music and his life as a musician. Check it out if you haven't.

John