Harold Smith Contemporary African American Abstract Artist Creates The Color of Jazz Art

ARTIST'S BIO:

"My love affair with jazz began when I was quite small. I was introduced to jazz by my favorite relative, my uncle Clifford. A couple of times a year, he would drive down to Kansas City from his home in Fort Riley and spend a weekend or a week with us. Uncle Clifford always brought thick stack of vinyl with him and would play it for us. While my older sister preferred to listen to the Jackson Five, Isley Brothers, Funkadelic - I liked what Uncle Clifford played. He played jazz. Clifford played Coltrane, Miles, Blakey, Monk, Ellington, and just about any jazz musician you could think of. Uncle Clifford could play his own jazz too. He couldn't read music but I remember when we would go to the shopping mall and Uncle Clifford would sit down at one of the organs in the music store and just start playing. Soon a crowd of thirty to forty people would be standing around in pure amazement. He couldn't read music and, by the time I remembered him he was no longer playing in a band, but Uncle Clifford could make the organ talk. He could play the essence of jazz and embody the moment in music. Like a lot of jazz musicians, Uncle Clifford died prematurely. He left no children and relatives fought over his house, car, and the organs in his home. However, no one wanted his LPs. I took them. I also received a scrapbook of mementos from his band days. It was invaluable and among other things, contained a letter from Charlie Parker, pictures with Duke Ellington, and a signed note from Billie Holiday. Since then jazz has been a part of my life. The sounds of Lester Young, Yardbird, Lady Day, and Benny Goodman can often be found wafting through my home like the aroma of sweetly seasoned barbeque. At my home, jazz is in the walls, the furniture, the knives and brushes I paint with, and even in the tubes of acrylic and oil sitting in my studio. Not only is my home filled with jazz, but also is home to jazz's first cousins: blues and gospel. To me, it's no mystery where my work finds its inspiration. It's always been from the same source. In 1993, after my mother passed, I found some brittle, yellowed drawings I made in kindergarten. They are of crudely drawn stick men with trumpets and saxophones. The inspiration has always been there. When I temporarily moved to Bermuda in 1989, all of my LPs and most of my mementos vanished at the customs office. I never saw them again. But the memories remain. Jazz and the memories it gives me are as much a part of my life as breathing."

I love jazz, I love painting, I love bringing the two of them together.

Copyright Harold Smith 2005