Smith, Russell (T.; aka “Pops”)
Smith, Russell (T.; aka “Pops”)
Smith, Russell (T.; aka “Pops” ), jazz trumpeter; b. Ripley, Ohio, 1890; d. Los Angeles, Calif., March 27, 1966. Brother of Joe Smith . Taught music by his father, he started on alto horn, then switched to trumpet at age 14. His first professional work was in a Cincinnati theater; he then began touring with the Six Musical Spillers (c. 1910). He settled in N.Y. and joined Ford Dabney at the Ziegfeld Roof Garden. He went to Europe with Joe Jordan in 1914. After returning to the U.S., he joined the Army and served as a musician in the 350th Field Artillery Band (directed by Lt. Tim Brymn); he sailed with this unit to France in 1917. After demobilization, he joined Jim Europe’s Band in 1919, then spent four years working mainly with the “Shuffle Along/Bam ville” revue. Smith joined Fletcher Henderson regularly in late 1925, and was Henderson’s first choice for lead trumpet work until 1942. During this period he also worked for many other leaders, including Claude Hopkins (1935–36), Benny Carter (1939–40), and Horace Henderson. Smith was with Cab Calloway until summer 1945, then began a long association with Noble Sissle. He retired to Calif, in the 1950s, playing occasionally and doing some teaching.
—John Chilton , Who’s Who of Jazz/Lewis Porter