Smith, Willie, "the Lion" [Bertholoff, William Henry Joseph Bonaparte] (Goshen, NY, 25 Nov 1897 - New York, 18 April 1973)

Pianist and composer

Born of Jewish and black parentage (according to his own assertions he served as a cantor for a time during the 1940s), he grew up in Newark, New Jersey, where his mother's keyboard playing in church sparked his early interest in music. He started playing piano at the age of six. After a largely informal music education he began to work professionally while still in his teens, and soon became one of the most illustrious and influential proponents of the stride or Harlem ragtime style. He earned his nickname "the Lion" during World War I through his heroism at the front. On his discharge from the army in 1919 he established himself in the forefront of New York's stride pianists. The friendship and mutual admiration he enjoyed with Duke Ellington during these early years were musically documented in Ellington's Portrait of the Lion (1939) and Smith's Portrait of the Duke (1957).

Smith remained virtually unknown to the general public until 1935, when Decca issued a series of his recordings with groups. His solo recordings for Commodore in 1939, however, best illustrate the full maturity of his style. The eight original pieces recorded during this session clearly reveal his acknowledged interest in classical music and stand as masterpieces of stride piano literature, comparable with earlier works by James P. Johnson and Fats Waller. Of particular interest are the counterpoint in Passionette and the impressionistic qualities in Echoes of Spring, inspired by images of clouds, trees, and morning in a New York park.

During the 1940s Smith's popularity grew as Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey performed arrangements of his compositions, and the success of a tour of Europe in 1949 was representative of the increased recognition and respect that he enjoyed in his final years. In the 1950s he played regularly at the Central Plaza, and in 1954 he appeared in the film Jazz Dance. He continued to perform at festivals during the 1960s and the early 1970s, and also made two further tours of Europe (1965, 1966). As an entertainer, Smith's flamboyant behavior and dashing appearance, with derby hat and fat cigar, became almost legendary. As a pianist and composer, his blending of ragtime, impressionism, and counterpoint, coupled with an ability to contrast delicate and subtle melodic lines with passages of intense swing, constituted a unique contribution to the jazz tradition.

 Bill Dobbins

The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, © Macmillan Reference Ltd 1988