Geoffrey Smith
Journalist and Jazz Critic, BBC Music Magazine
Born in Michigan, USA in 1943, Geoffrey Smith grew up with the diverse sounds of Schubert, jazz and Gilbert & Sullivan. He later trained to become a musician, concentrating on percussion and playing in jazz groups of every style from Dixieland to avant-garde, before the rise of rock discouraged him in 1969. Today he is based in the UK and is a freelance writer and lecturer, contributing articles and reviews to a variety of publications, including BBC Music Magazine, Country Life, New Society and The Spectator. He was also previously the presenter of Jazz Record Requests and Geoffrey Smith's Jazz on BBC Radio 3.
Six of the Best Jazz Film Cameos
15 best jazz trumpet players ever
4 of the best jazz guitarists ever
28 best ever jazz pianists
25 greatest jazz saxophonists of all time
Best jazz band leaders of all time
Best jazz singers ever: our top 15
Greatest female jazz musicians: 16 of the best
Who is Billie Holiday?
Who is Ella Fitzgerald?
The best recordings of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
A Tribute to Oscar Peterson
Among classical pianists, jazz has become not just a source of fascination, but repertoire. Twenty years ago, Steven Mayer recorded an album of Art Tatum transcriptions, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet paid similar homage to Bill Evans, while the ever-individual Joanna MacGregor has channelled performances by Erroll Garner and Thelonious Monk.
Ellington: Black, Brown and Beige
Asked if his concert works were really ‘jazz’, Duke Ellington retorted, ‘I don’t see how this thing called jazz takes precedence over me.’ For him, music was either good or bad: the suites and tone poems of his later years were simply an extension of his art, and this new set of Ellington compositions by JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic shows the ducal legacy right at home in the concert hall.
Chick Corea: The Continents: Concerto for Jazz Quintet & Chamber Orchestra; What's This?; Solo Continuum; etc
Mozart has form with jazz musicians: Keith Jarrett, George Shearing and Chick Corea have all performed his Piano Concertos. In 2006, Corea was commissioned to write ‘a concerto in the spirit of Mozart’ by Wiener Mozartjahr (Mozart Year Vienna), to commemorate the composer’s 250th birthday. Corea responded with The Continents, a kind of swinging concerto grosso written for piano, quintet and chamber orchestra.
Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology