Lavay Smith | |
|---|---|
 Lavay Smith in 2007 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 1967 (age 54–55) Long Beach, California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Years active | 1980s–present |
| Labels | Fat Note |
| Associated acts | Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers |
| Website | www |
Lavay Smith (born 1967) is an American singer specializing in swing and blues. [1] She tours with her eight-piece "little big band", Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers.
The fourth of five children, Lavay Smith was born in Long Beach, California. Her father was a jazz fan, and she grew up hearing Fats Waller, Bessie Smith, Helen Humes, Billie Holiday, and Dinah Washington, though she listened to genres outside of jazz. When she was twelve, she moved with her family to the Philippines. In her teens she sang in a rock band in Manila, performing for members of the American military. [2] The family moved back to California, where she attended high school. [3] After moving to San Francisco, she sang in coffee houses, accompanying herself on guitar. She formed the Red Hot Skillet Lickers in 1989 with Chris Siebert, who was a member of the washboard-jazz band Bo Grumpus with guitarist Craig Ventresco. Smith combined "red hot" with Gid Tanner's 1920s country band, the Skillet Lickers. [2] [3] The band played rock and roll clubs, then became popular with the swing revival that started several years later. Their first album was released in 1996. [2] The song "Everybody's Talkin' 'bout Miss Thang" peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard magazine Jazz chart in 2000. [4]
Since 1996 she has performed and toured with an eight-piece lineup (four horns and four rhythm) of trumpet, trombone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, piano, guitar, bass, and drums. Occasionally, Lavay expands the band to ten pieces (six horns and four rhythm) by adding a second trumpet and a baritone. Lavay also performs with a sixteen-piece big band.
The band consists of Bill Ortiz (trumpet); Mike Olmos (trumpet); Danny Armstrong (trombone); Jules Broussard (alto and tenor saxophones); Charles McNeal (alto and tenor saxophones); Howard Wiley (tenor saxophone); Robert Stewart (tenor saxophone); Pete Cornell (alto, tenor and baritone saxophones); Chris Siebert (piano, arranger, bandleader), Charlie Siebert (guitar); David Ewell (double bass); Marcus Shelby (double bass); and Darrell Green (drums). Arrangements are written by Chris Siebert and David Berger. [5]
McKinney's Cotton Pickers were an American jazz band, founded in Detroit, Michigan, United States in 1926, and led by William McKinney, who expanded his Synco Septet to ten players. Cuba Austin took over for McKinney on drums, with the latter becoming the band's manager. Between 1927 and 1931, they were one of the most popular African American bands. Many of their records for Victor were bestsellers.
The swing revival, also called retro swing and neo-swing, was a renewed interest in swing music, beginning around 1989 and reaching a peak from the early/mid to late 1990s. The music was generally rooted in the big bands of the swing era of the 1930s and 1940s, but it was also greatly influenced by rockabilly, boogie-woogie, the jump blues of artists such as Louis Prima, and the theatrics of Cab Calloway. Many neo-swing bands practiced contemporary fusions of swing, jazz, and jump blues with rock, punk rock, ska, and ska punk music or had roots in punk, ska, ska punk, and alternative rock music.
Herman Riley was a jazz saxophonist who was a studio musician in Los Angeles. He worked with Gene Ammons, Lorez Alexandria, Count Basie, Bobby Bryant, Donald Byrd, Benny Carter, Quincy Jones, Shelly Manne, Blue Mitchell, and Joe Williams. He died of heart failure in Los Angeles at the age of 73.
New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm is an album by Stan Kenton. "Invention for Guitar and Trumpet" features guitarist Sal Salvador. A New York Times writer commented in 2003 that composer Bill Russo's "Improvisation" piece was "among the highest achievements in orchestral jazz".
Fess Williams and His Joy Boys was a band of clarinetist Fess Williams during 1928.
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was the first integrated all-women's band in the United States. During the 1940s the band featured some of the best female musicians of the day. They played swing and jazz on a national circuit that included the Apollo Theater in New York City, the Regal Theater in Chicago, and the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C. After a performance in Chicago in 1943, the Chicago Defender announced the band was "one of the hottest stage shows that ever raised the roof of the theater!" They have been labeled "the most prominent and probably best female aggregation of the Big Band era". During feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s in America, the International Sweethearts of Rhythm became popular with feminist writers and musicologists who made it their goal to change the discourse on the history of jazz to include both men and women musicians. Flutist Antoinette Handy was one scholar who documented the story of these female musicians of color.
Groovin' High is a 1955 compilation album of studio sessions by jazz composer and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. The Rough Guide to Jazz describes the album as "some of the key bebop small-group and big band recordings."
Miss Smith To You! is the third album by Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers. The album has nine covers of music from the 1930s to the 1950s, plus three original tunes written by bandleader Lavay Smith and pianist and arranger Chris Seibert.
Everybody's Talkin' 'Bout Miss Thing! is the second album by Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers.
One Hour Mama is the first album by Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers. The album was recorded at Bay Records, Berkeley, California.
Reflections in Blue is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra recorded in 1986 in Italy and released on the Black Saint label in 1987.
Roll 'Em: Shirley Scott Plays the Big Bands is an album by the American jazz organist Shirley Scott, recorded in 1966 for the Impulse! label.
Sound Pieces is an album by American jazz composer, conductor and arranger Oliver Nelson featuring performances recorded in 1966 for the Impulse! label.
Fine and Mellow: Live at Birdland West is a 1988 live album by Carmen McRae.
Dinah Washington Sings Fats Waller is a seventh studio album by blues, R&B and jazz singer Dinah Washington released on the Emarcy label, and reissued by Verve Records in 1990 as The Fats Waller Songbook. In the album Washington covers 12 songs that have been penned or performed by jazz pianist, organist, singer and songwriter Fats Waller. Allmusic details the album in its review as saying: "Dinah Washington Sings Fats Waller appropriately brings together Waller's vivacious songs and Washington's demonstrative vocal talents. The jazz diva effortlessly handles Waller classics while turning in particularly emotive renditions. Adding nice variety to the already strong set, Washington's husband at the time, saxophonist Eddie Chamblee, joins the singer for playful duets on "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Everybody Loves My Baby".
The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz is a six-LP box set released in 1973 by the Smithsonian Institution. Compiled by jazz critic, scholar, and historian Martin Williams, the album included tracks from over a dozen record labels spanning several decades and genres of American jazz, from ragtime and big band to post-bop and free jazz.
1929–1933 is a 1990 compilation album collecting material recorded by Henry "Red" Allen and his orchestra during the years 1929 to 1933. The first of five CDs released by Chronological Classics, the album is rated part of the "core collection" by the Penguin Guide to Jazz. Allen and Coleman Hawkins shared leadership of the band.
Miss Thing or Ms. Thing may refer to:
Porgy & Bess Revisited, subtitled Played by a Very Unusual Cast, is an album of jazz interpretations of songs from the George Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess performed by cornetist Rex Stewart and trumpeter Cootie Williams, with saxophonists Hilton Jefferson and Pinky Williams and trombonist Lawrence Brown, that was recorded in late 1958 and released on the Warner Bros. label.
Hot Summer Dance is a live album by American pianist, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington recorded at Mather Air Force Base in California and first released as a CD on Bob Thiele's Red Baron label in 1983.
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