Harry Smith

Early days in London

Working with students in St Lucia

The English trumpet player and teacher Harry Smith died on 1st September aged 76 in Vieuxfort, St Lucia, West Indies.

Born in Bristol in 1927, Harry took up the trumpet at an early age and quickly matured as a player with an exceptional musical ear. As a teenager, Harry's National Service gave him a valuable musical grounding during spells in Yemen and Palestine and soon afterwards he enjoyed early success as a jazz and dance-band player, including a spell as a member of the prize-winning 'Blue Rockets' band, the successor to the wartime Royal Army Ordnance Corps band of the same name. He freelanced in London through the 50s and 60s as lead trumpet and worked with many high-profile artists of the day including Matt Munro and notably on Buddy Holly and the Crickets' only UK tour in 1958. He is prominent on the sound track of at least one British film of this period.

Throughout the 60s, Harry worked tirelessly as a trumpet player in both classical and jazz idioms, at the same time honing his skills as a big-band arranger. He eventually decided to pursue a more academic musical career and in 1967 moved with his young family to Bristol where, as a mature student, he ambitiously embarked on a BA Honours degree course in Music. During his time as a student, his piece for trumpet and chamber orchestra was premièred at St George's Brandon Hill (then a church, now a major chamber music venue), by friend and colleague Dr Alan Rump. Harry continued to do regular gigs to sustain the family through those years and established a busy private practice as a brass teacher at his home in Bristol. Upon graduating he became a key peripatetic brass teacher in the service of Bristol Corporation and its successor education authority, the County of Avon.

Harry's performing career also continued after graduation and he was the first trumpet of choice for a surprisingly wide range of jobs. John Berry writes, 'His jazz was a fine blend of introspective phrases and adventurous "taking a chance" constructs. He was a brilliant player.'

Throughout this time, Harry's main delight was exciting and innovative big band music, and for several years through the 70's Harry's regular 'rehearsal' band occasionally performed concerts in the West Country as the 'Hal Smith Orchestra'. This band played interesting 'symphonic' big-band music in a style probably best exemplified by the Sauter-Finnegan big band, with a distinct flavour of woodwind and tuned percussion added to the more usual lineup. Many of the band's arrangements were either originals by Harry or painstakingly transcribed from his huge collection of LPs. The arrangements included Kenton and Ellington classics, Sauter-Finnegan tunes, and several inspired by the Jerry Fielding LP 'Near East Brass - West Coast Style'.

In the mid-1970s Harry established a small recording company which later produced some notable high quality recordings for a small audiophile record label, Auracle Records. At the same time Harry's business was one of the first to produce 'teachatapes' of Associated Board examination pieces for a wide range of instruments. Many candles were burnt at both ends during both the recording and editing stages of the tapes for these projects which of course required updating with every annual syllabus!

In the early 1980s Harry took a scuba-diving holiday in St Lucia, fell in love with the place and people, and quickly decided to settle there in pursuit of good weather and swimming. Once he had established a base he became involved in introducing a more formal approach to the teaching of music on the island, and was instrumental in the founding of the St Lucia School of Music. He continued to teach both trumpet and music theory and brought his expertise to bear on a whole new group of students. Among these is the prominent jazz steel-pan exponent, Allison Marquis, who now features in festival and concert programmes throughout the Caribbean.

In the last 10 years Harry trained as a Piano Technician and was one of a very few in St Lucia maintaining the pianos of the island. Harry also continued to develop his woodworking skills and designed and built a multi-position 'back-friendly' wooden relaxer chair. These were sold to many prominent people on the island and to several of the local hotel chains.

After a lifetime of British weather Harry made the most of the St Lucian climate and the surrounding seas and kept himself fit and healthy, swimming almost every day until earlier this year when he suffered a broken collarbone.

Harry's wife Joan died in 1990. He leaves two children and three grandchildren.

Website:
Harry Smith - personal tribute page by Neville Young
(an expanded version of this obituary, with more detail and personal content.)