Johnny Henry Smith II (June 25, 1922 – June 11, 2013) was an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist. He wrote "Walk, Don't Run" in 1954. In 1984, Smith was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

Early life

During the Great Depression, Smith's family moved from Birmingham, Alabama, where Smith was born,

He taught himself to play guitar in pawnshops, which let him play in exchange for keeping the guitars in tune. At 13 he was teaching others to play the guitar. One of his students bought a new guitar and gave him his old guitar, which became the first guitar Smith owned.

Military experience

Having learned to fly from pilots he befriended, Smith enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in the hopes of becoming a military pilot. Given a choice between joining the military band and being sent to mechanic's school, Smith opted to join the military band. He claimed that they gave him a cornet, an Arban's instructional book, and two weeks to meet the standard which included being able to read music.

His best-known musical composition is the track "Walk Don't Run", written for a 1954 recording session as a contrafact to "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise". Guitarist Chet Atkins covered the track, recording a neo-classical rendition of the song on the electric guitar for his Hi Fi in Focus album which preceded the Ventures' hit by three years. He played his arrangement fingerstyle, including the bass notes A, G, F, and E, the notes of an Andalusian cadence which later became the basis for the Ventures' arrangement.

The musicians who became the Ventures heard the Atkins version, rearranged it pop style, and recorded it in 1959 on their own Blue Horizon label. The Ventures version gained popularity locally and was distributed by Dolton Records by way of Liberty Records and went nationally in the U.S. to No.2 on the Billboard Top 100 for a week in September 1960.

The Ventures recorded the track again with a new arrangement as "Walk: Don't Run! '64" and achieved another gold record when it reach the Billboard Top 10.

Smith personally expressed his gratefulness to Atkins and The Ventures for providing Smith with the bountiful royalties he received from their recordings.

In 1957, Smith's wife died in childbirth, along with his second child. He sent his young daughter to Colorado Springs, Colorado to be cared for temporarily by his mother, and in 1958 he left his busy performing career in New York City to join his daughter in Colorado. There, Smith ran a musical instruments store, taught music, and continued to record albums for the Royal Roost Records and Verve Records into the 1960s. He told the Colorado Springs Independent in 2001 (as quoted in his New York Times obituary) "In the end, everything came down to the fact that I loved my daughter too much to let my career put her at risk. But there were other factors, too. I loved New York musically, but I hated living there." Paul Vitello observed, "Smith continued to record, and sometimes performed in Colorado nightclubs, but declined almost all invitations to tour. One exception was for Bing Crosby, whom he accompanied on a tour of England in 1977 that ended shortly before Crosby's death."

Smith died of complications from a fall at his home in Colorado Springs at the age of 90. Frisell had been a student of Smith in the 1970s.

Signature guitars

Guild, Gibson, and Heritage Guitars have all made guitar models which were endorsed by Johnny Smith. In each case, the guitar was designed wholly or in part by Smith. Each design was a full-bodied archtop guitar with a top carved from solid spruce and a back and sides made of solid maple. All of the on-board electronics for each guitar, from the small pickup in the neck position through the volume knob to the output jack, were mounted on the pickguard.

Smith claimed to have learned about guitar design by observing master luthier John D'Angelico, who was his friend and guitar supplier when he lived in New York City.

Gibson Johnny Smith

In 1961, Ted McCarty, then president of Gibson, went to meet the retired Smith at his home in Colorado Springs. McCarty spent several days with Smith, during which time Smith designed the guitar he wanted built. The design was accepted by Gibson with a few minor cosmetic changes which were acceptable to Smith. Like Guild before them, Gibson continued to manufacture their version of the Johnny Smith design with a new name: the Gibson LeGrand.

Guild Johnny Smith Award by Benedetto

William Schultz, chairman of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation of which Guild Guitars was a subsidiary, asked Smith if he would be willing to return his endorsement to the Guild Artist Award. Familiar with Schultz's management and knowing that the construction would be supervised by master luthier Bob Benedetto, Smith agreed. Unlike Guild and Gibson, Heritage Guitars discontinued manufacture of their Smith-designed guitar after Smith withdrew his endorsement.

Discography

As leader

  • Jazz at NBC Series (Johnny Smith Quintet featuring Stan Getz) Royal Roost, 1952, 10" LP
  • Jazz at NBC Series, Vol. 2 (Johnny Smith Quintet featuring Stan Getz) (Royal Roost, 1953) 10" LP
  • In a Mellow Mood (Roost Records, 1954) 10" LP
  • In a Sentimental Mood (Roost, 1954) 10" LP
  • Johnny Smith Plays Jimmy Van Heusen (Roost, 1955)
  • The Johnny Smith Quartet (Roost, 1955)
  • The New Johnny Smith Quartet (Roost, 1956)
  • The Johnny Smith Foursome (Roost, 1957)
  • The Johnny Smith Foursome, Volume II (Roost, 1957)
  • Flower Drum Song (Roost, 1958)
  • Easy Listening (Roost, 1959)
  • Johnny Smith Favorites (Roost, 1959)
  • Designed for You (Roost, 1959)
  • My Dear Little Sweetheart (with the Irwin Kostal Orchestra) Roost, 1960)
  • Guitar & Strings (with the Irwin Kostal Orchestra) Roost, 1960)
  • Johnny Smith Plus The Trio (Roost, 1960)
  • The Sound of the Johnny Smith Guitar (Roost, 1961)
  • The Man with the Blue Guitar (Roost, 1962)
  • Reminiscing (Roost, 1965)
  • Johnny Smith (Verve Records, 1967)
  • Johnny Smith's Kaleidoscope (Verve, 1968)
  • Phase II (Verve, 1968)

Compilation albums

  • Moonlight in Vermont (Roost, 1956) tracks from the two Jazz at NBC issues of 1952–53
  • Moods Moods Moods (Roost, 1956) tracks from the two In a...Mood issues of 1954
  • The Guitar World of Johnny Smith (Roost, 1964)
  • The Complete Roost Johnny Smith Small Group Sessions (Mosaic Records, 2002) 8-CD set
  • Walk, Don't Run (Roulette Records/EMI Records, 2005)

As sideman

With Stan Getz

  • The Complete Roost Recordings (Blue Note Records, 1950–1954 [1997]) 3-CD set

With Hank Jones

  • Urbanity (Clef Records, 1947–1953 [1956])

With Beverley Kenney

  • Beverley Kenney Sings for Johnny Smith (Roost, 1955)

With Ruth Price

  • Ruth Price Sings with the Johnny Smith Quartet (Roost, 1956)

With Jeri Southern

  • Jeri Southern Meets Johnny Smith (Roulette, 1958)

With Art Van Damme

  • A Perfect Match (Columbia Records, 1963)

References

  • Johnny Smith interview at NAMM Oral History Library