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Ann Arbor Jazz Artist's Work Better Known In Europe Than Here

Ann Arbor Jazz Artist's Work Better Known In Europe Than Here image
Parent Issue
Day
4
Month
September
Year
1989
Copyright
Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

VIEWPOINT

Ann Arbor jazz artist's work better known in Europe than here

By BARBARA DRUBEL

Many Ann Arbor citizens contribute nationally and internationally to politics, education, science, sports and numerous other arenas of human endeavor. As one of the few international jazz festivals unfolds near our doorstep, I would like to pay tribute to one such person, whose field is jazz.

His name is Louis Smith.

Those scanning the 1989 Montreaux-Detroit Jazz Festival schedule will see that Smith is slated to play at 6 tonight in Hart Plaza. This trumpeter has recorded for Blue Note and Steeplechase Records, has toured with pianist Horace Silver, and still regularly teams up with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Clark Terry.

Smith, who teaches band for the Ann Arbor Public Schools, is often invited to play and lead workshops in Europe.

This summer Lou Smith dropped in at the Bilboquet, an established jazz club in Paris. Louis had encouraged local saxophonist Peter Klaver to take his horn to Europe. “You won’t believe the respect Europeans give jazz music and musicians; it’s like nothing you’ll ever experience in America. Whatever you do, at least once in your life, take your horn to Europe.

And so Smith, Klaver and their wives stood outside the Bilboquet, listening for a while as a young French quintet spilled American jazz into the night.

The club was half empty when the black American and his party were seated at the front. Though the piano was a little hard to hear, perhaps because the bass seemed just a little too loud, the trumpet and the tenor sax, indeed the entire aggregation was clearly working out on such classics as “Chasin’ the Bird,” “I Can’t Get Started,” and even “Afternoon in Paris.”

During their break, Smith complimented the band’s leader and trumpet player. Speaking little French, he asked, using hand gestures and exaggerated facial expressions, “May I sit in?” Then, suddenly remembering his trademark courtly manners, he extended his hand into the momentary pause with a smile of introduction, “I’m Louis Smith.”

The light of comprehension broke visibly through the language barrier and across the young man’s previously aloof French face, registering shock and delight as he reached with both hand to enthusiastically complete the handshake.

“You’re Louis Smith?!” He was unbelieving and overjoyed. “We were just talking about you! We have all your records!”

The smiles don’t stop as the Frenchmen spout tune after tune from Louis Smith albums. When they mention the song “Lulu,” Smith’s wife, who has been enjoying this scene, calls out cheerily, “That’s me! C’est moi!” and everyone laughs.

Through Lulu, who speaks French and English, it is understood that the horn players are brothers from Marseilles who grew up listening to Louis Smith records and marveling at the American trumpet player.

Eager now to leave behind the obstacle course that is any unfamiliar language, the musicians opened their next set with “Just friends,” inviting Louis to take the first solo, and his American friend to take the second.

The audience grew larger as this celebration of jazz wafted out to the Parisian sidewalks.

This Labor Day, I’d like to honor Louis Smith and all those workers who mine the joy of music, who build bridges between peoples and feed our souls, all those to whom “it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” We need them.

Trumpeter Louis Smith

Barbara Drubel of Ann Arbor teaches language arts and social studies for the Middle Years Alternative, Ann Arbor Public Schools.