Alto Saxophone Willie Smith Photo Print By Phil Stern, SWING & JAZZ

Description

8x10 black & white photo on light card stock of ONE OF THE BEST ALTO SAX PLAYERS- Willie Smith
William McLeish Smith (November 25, 1910 – March 7, 1967)[1] was an American saxophonist and one of the major alto saxophone players of the swing era. He also played clarinet and sang.
Willie Smith was in both the Lunceford (Black) and the Harry James (white) bands.
In 1929, Smith became an alto saxophonist for
Jimmie Lunceford's band,
becoming one of the main stars in the group.
In 1940, he led his own quintet as a side project. His success with Lunceford had lost its charms by 1942, as he now wanted more pay and less travel.
Smith moved to the
Charlie Spivak orchestra
for a year, and was in the United States Navy for another year. He then switched to
Harry James's orchestra,
where he made more money, and stayed with him for seven years.
After that he worked with
Duke Ellington and Billy May.
He was also part of the
Gene Krupa Trio
, and can be heard on the 1952 live Verve album, The Drum Battle, part of the Jazz at the Philharmonic series (the 'battle' was with
Buddy Rich
). In 1954, he returned to Harry James's band.[3]