Biography
Active during the key postwar era of recording activity, this pianist and vocalist ranks among the limited number of blues and jazz musicians who shared the name Willie Smith. Nicknames evidently played a useful role in ensuring the correct individual received any given booking. The least prominent member of that group to secure documented releases, he appears credited as Willie "Long Time" Smith on his 1940s and 1950s sides. More familiar figures bearing the same name encompass the Chicago blues drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith and the stride pianist universally nicknamed Willie "The Lion" Smith.
Long Time surfaces alongside further accomplished artists on the Columbia anthology Beauty of the Blues, whose deliberately striking title gathers performers such as Bessie Smith (unrelated), Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Minnie, and Blind Boy Fuller. His contribution to the collection, "Homeless Blues," addresses a familiar theme, and his overall standing within the idiom mirrors that of additional lesser-known names featured in the same program, among them Arizona Dranes, whose moniker evokes a western plumbing concern. Boogie numbers formed a recurring focus for Smith, with further examples surfacing on various anthologies such as the slimy "Dirty Deal Boogie" and the amorous "I Love You Baby Boogie."
Long Time surfaces alongside further accomplished artists on the Columbia anthology Beauty of the Blues, whose deliberately striking title gathers performers such as Bessie Smith (unrelated), Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Minnie, and Blind Boy Fuller. His contribution to the collection, "Homeless Blues," addresses a familiar theme, and his overall standing within the idiom mirrors that of additional lesser-known names featured in the same program, among them Arizona Dranes, whose moniker evokes a western plumbing concern. Boogie numbers formed a recurring focus for Smith, with further examples surfacing on various anthologies such as the slimy "Dirty Deal Boogie" and the amorous "I Love You Baby Boogie."