Sonelius Smith

Sonelius Smith (born December 17, 1942) is known both for his innovative contributions to jazz as composer and pianist and for his collaborations with some of the late twentieth century's greatest jazz musicians.

As a composer, Smith has created work performed by pianists Ahmad Jamal and Stanley Cowell and saxophonists David Murray and Robin Kenyatta. As a jazz pianist, Smith has performed with Charles Mingus, Lionel Hampton and Stanley Cowell, and been a member of several noteworthy musical groups, including the Piano Choir, which the Washington Post described in 2000 as a multi-genre "Masters of the Piano ... [s]et up on nine Steinway pianos in a semicircle with the keys facing the audience [showcasing] the best of three centuries of piano history." In 1977, the New York Times described Smith's performance with Clifford Thornton's jazz quintet as "forcefully inventive." In 1991, AllMusic described the David Murray Big Band album, which Smith recorded as a member of the David Murray Quartet, as "generally brilliant."

Between 1970 and 2001, Smith performed, played or composed the music for some forty-five albums, including one of his own: The World of the Children (1977), originally released by the storied Strata-East Records, but remastered by Pure Pleasure Records Ltd. in 2021. In a review of the remastered edition, Robbie Gerson of the UK's Audiophile Audition praised its "aspirational soul, free jazz and lyrical expression" and "Smith (the composer) [for] shin[ing] on acoustic piano with a complicated, transcendental improvisation ... incorporat[ing] both Latin and African patterns," which he described as "captivating," noting that "[a]nother Smith composition (“Conversation Piece”) captures the opposing earthy and graceful abstraction."

In 2005, Smith's collaboration with Shamek Farrah on "Julius" was included in Mastercuts Breaks, a compilation released by Mastercuts that also featured Earth, Wind & Fire, James Brown and Nina Simone.

Jazz pianist and composer
Born in Hillhouse, Mississippi, Smith learned to play piano by ear. In 1948, after his family relocated to Memphis, he began receiving classical training, which later won him a music scholarship to the historically Black university now known as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, but then known as the Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College. In college, Smith played in a small ensemble, and studied piano and theory with Josephus Robinson and John Stubblefield. In 1969, he graduated with a major in music education. After graduation, Smith began touring Europe with The New Directions, which featured Stubblefield and musicians James Leary, Larry Ross and Benjamin Jones.

Smith relocated to New York City at the end of 1969, and began working with Rashid Ali's Jazzmobile jazz quartet. That led to his arrangements and compositions for singer, songwriter and music producer Bob Crewe's Saturday Music company. A year-long tour with Rahsaan Roland Kirk followed, as did collaborations with Kirk on the studio album Blacknuss, the live album Rahsaan Rahsaan and Natural Black Inventions: Root Strata, a second studio album.

In 1973, Smith joined jazz pianist Stanley Cowell's ensemble. In the mid-1970s, he worked with Shamek Farrah and Flight to Sanity. In 1974, he served as musical director for Nancy Fales' Ark, directed by Ralph Lee at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City's East Village. Toward the end of the 1970s, he played with J.R. Mitchell, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Warren Smith, and Wilber Morris.

In the 1980s, Smith worked with Andrew Cyrille and joined David Murray's quartet. Throughout a long musical career, Smith also collaborated with Kenny Dorham, Roy Brooks, Charles Mingus, Roland Kirk, Robin Kenyatta, Rashied Ali, Warren Smith, Frank Foster, Harold Vick, Donald Byrd, Elvin Jones, Archie Shepp, Freddie Hubbard, Art Blakey and Lionel Hampton. As founder of the eponymous Sonelius Smith Trio, Smith collaborates with bass player Adam Kahan and baritone saxophonist Claire Daly.

Music educator
Between 1973 and 1986, Smith worked as an educator for the New Muse Community Museum. In the 1990s, he also began working for The Harlem School of the Arts, in addition to teaching at the Third Street Music School Settlement.