19 Facts About Johnny Smith

Johnny Henry Smith II was an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist.

In 1984, Smith was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

Johnny Smith taught himself to play guitar in pawnshops, which let him play in exchange for keeping the guitars in tune.

One of Johnny Smith's students bought a new guitar and gave him his old guitar, which became the first guitar Johnny Smith owned.

Johnny Smith joined Uncle Lem and the Mountain Boys, a local hillbilly band that travelled around Maine, performing at dances, fairs, and similar venues.

Johnny Smith dropped out of high school to accommodate this enterprise.

Johnny Smith left The Mountain Boys when he was eighteen years old to join a variety trio called the Airport Boys.

Johnny Smith was invalidated from the flight programme because of imperfect vision in his left eye.

Johnny Smith claimed that they gave him a cornet, an Arban's instructional book, and two weeks to meet the standard, which included being able to read music.

An extremely diverse musician, Johnny Smith was equally at home playing in the Birdland jazz club or sight-reading scores in the orchestral pit of the New York Philharmonic.

From Schoenberg to Gershwin to originals, Johnny Smith was one of the most versatile guitarists of the 1950s.

Johnny Smith's playing is characterized by closed-position chord voicings and rapidly ascending lines.

Johnny Smith played his arrangement fingerstyle, including the bass notes A, G, F, and E which later became the basis for the Ventures' arrangement.

In 1957, Johnny Smith's wife died in childbirth, along with his second child.

Johnny Smith sent his young daughter to Colorado Springs, Colorado to be cared for temporarily by his mother, and the following year he left his busy performing career in New York City to join his daughter in Colorado.

Johnny Smith died of complications from a fall at his home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, at the age of 90.

Johnny Smith claimed to have learned about guitar design by observing master luthier John D'Angelico, who was his friend and guitar supplier when he lived in New York.

In 1955, after discussions with Alfred Dronge, chairman and founder of the Guild Guitar Company, Johnny Smith designed a guitar and sent the drawings and specifications to Dronge.

Unlike Guild and Gibson, Heritage Guitars discontinued manufacture of their Johnny Smith-designed guitar after Johnny Smith withdrew his endorsement.