Johnny Smith: the quiet legend of jazz guitar

In the Fifties the name of Johnny Smith was synonymous of 'first class' jazz guitar. A staff member of NBC orchestra, Smith could play with equal proficiency guitar, trumpet and viola beside being an arranger and composer. His 1952 version of 'Moonlight in Vermont', with Stan Getz on saxophone, was on top of jazz charts for a long time and readers of Downbeat voted for him as 'best guitar player' in 1954 and 1955. Smith played the guitar with the approach of a composer and arranger, which explains his famous 'Johnny Smith voicings':"If I were to write this out for a sax section, it would be just like I would play it on the guitar. This is how I think of the guitar - in terms of orchestrating" he declared, without putting a big accent on how physically difficult it is to obtain these voicings on guitar. Here we have a much rarer 1959 version of 'Moonlight in Vermont', where the shimmering Smiths' guitar is backed only by George Roumanis on bass and Mousey Alexander on drums. Pure magic.