Here's an awesome Bill Smith composition based on the blues from his record with Enrico Pieranunzi. And another based on "Giant Steps" from the same record. I have long wanted to make a blog post about one of my musical heroes, Bill Smith. I first heard him playing with Dave Brubeck. To many clarinetists who play contemporary classical music or "new" music, William O. Smith is pioneer at studying and using extended techniques in his compositions and improvisations. The words pioneer, artist and innovator are often tossed about lightly these days but I feel that Bill Smith is as true of an example of a pioneer, multi-faceted artist, virtuoso clarinetist, formidable composer, masterful teacher and generous human being as we have amongst us today. Rather than attempt to explain all of the things that inspire me about Bill's music, I decided it would be best to let Bill speak for himself through his music. I've compiled a playlist of what I'd consider to be a pretty fair sampling of Bill's compositions and clarinet playing since his early days in the late 1940's with the Dave Brubeck Octet to a jazz opera from 2008. I've put some information about the recordings but it's mostly about the music. Here is a link to a recent discography
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