Smith jazzes up CSU
By Jon Huff
“You find out what (jazz) is by listening to it,” said Howie Smith.
He should know. Smith is a jazz composition professor at Cleveland State. He is also a jazz composer and performer, who has performed with artists like Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett and Elvis Presley.
On Feb. 11, Smith played in CSU Drinko Hall. It was the 27th presentation of Smith’s annual Concert in Progress. The concert, comprised of Smith’s own compositions, featured him and several guest musicians.
The idea for Concert in Progress came about when Smith was asked to give a saxophone recital. It was something he had not done and thought would be interesting.
The original concert was called “Howie Smith vs. Howie Smith.” Smith says the name came from the idea of Howie Smith the composer against Howie Smith the performer. A piece of music is seen differently as a performer than it is by the composer, according to Smith.
After four years of the composer against performer theme, Smith wanted a change. He thought of signs outside concert halls reading, “Do not enter, concert in progress.” Smith liked the idea of “concert in progress” and the double meaning it could take with the improvisational nature of jazz. The performance has been known as “Concert in Progress” since then.
The concert is ever changing. “[It] always revolves around people,” Smith said. Writing pieces for specific performers is more interesting than writing generic pieces for Smith. He prepares for each concert by picking whom he would like to play with and then writing pieces specific to the performer.
One year he had 70 performers accompany him, another year only himself.
Before coming to CSU in 1979, Smith had already been well entrenched in the music world.
What got Smith into jazz? “Probably my music teacher when I was still in junior high school.” The teacher would have Smith and his fellow students play jazz pieces. After that he just “kept on doing it.”
Through college, Smith played and wrote music. In 1973, while in Australia, he set up the first jazz studies program in Sydney. Smith went on to freelance in California before joining the CSU faculty.
For Smith, jazz is about always evolving. He likens jazz to the oral tradition of storytelling saying jazz musicians need to listen to the music that has come before and then add their own “story” to it.
“It’s not what you play as much as how and why you play it,” Smith said. “Jazz is an attitude.”