Buster Smith

An accomplished alto saxophonist as well as an arranger and composer credited by many with originating “One O’Clock Jump,” though Count Basie ultimately received official recognition, Buster Smith remains difficult to evaluate fully because he was seldom captured on record. Charlie Parker repeatedly cited Smith’s impact on his own sound, and the handful of early sides by the elder musician reveal audible parallels, even if Parker’s later conception grew considerably more sophisticated; the younger saxophonist performed in Smith’s group during 1937.

Throughout his most consequential period Smith remained a mainstay of the Kansas City scene. He spent 1925–1933 with Walter Page’s Blue Devils, an ensemble that left behind only two recordings, then joined Bennie Moten’s orchestra for its final phase from 1933 to 1935, and shared leadership of the Barons of Rhythm alongside Count Basie. Opting not to follow Basie eastward, Smith eventually traveled to New York on his own, where he supplied charts for bands directed by Gene Krupa, Count Basie, and Benny Carter while also serving brief engagements with Don Redman, Hot Lips Page, Eddie Durham, and Snub Mosley. He eventually resettled first in Kansas City and later in Texas, where he spent his remaining years. His only album, a long-unavailable Atlantic session from 1959, remains little known.