From Sinatra to Hubbard Street: Mike Smith celebrates 30 years at Andy's

In the jazz world, a “steady” refers to any regular engagement in which a musician plays the same club on a regular schedule – say, Solitaire Miles’s monthly slot at the Jazz Showcase (the third Wednesday of each month), or the weekly appearance of the organ quartet Sabertooth at the Green Mill every Saturday night for the last 18 years.

 

But even that methuselan jaunt can't compare with the longest-running steady in Chicago, a distinction that belongs to alto saxist Mike Smith. This weekend Smith celebrates his 30th anniversary holding down a weekly gig at Andy’s (11 E. Hubbard). 

 

As in – 30 years.

 

Smith, who turns 55 next year, burst on the Chicago scene with a style and concept largely (and unapologetically) beholden to Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. Adderley made for a pretty good role model: his recordings marked him as a major jazz figure even before he catapulted to greater fame via his solos on Miles Davis’s iconic Kind Of Blue.

 

Early in his career, Smith offered his music in tribute to Adderley (who died in 1975 at the age of 46), occasionally even performing and recording with Cannonball’s brother and front-line band partner, cornetist Nat Adderley. In four recordings for Delmark Records and a couple more downloadable discs on his own label, Smith has gradually shed the trappings of Adderley’s style; nonetheless, he has retained the latter’s glistening technique and full-sail sound in service of his own impressive saxophone voice.

 

Smith has kept his steady gig at Andy’s despite a busy tour schedule. As a twentysomething virtuoso, he toured with the big bands led by jazz legends Maynard Ferguson and Buddy Rich. And since the early 80s, he has played lead alto in the orchestras backing both Frank Sinatra and then Frank Sinatra, Jr.; he soon took on the position of orchestra contractor for both singers, making him responsible for the hiring of other musicians for the Sinatras’ different regional bands. But in all that time he has led a steady succession of terrific combos each week on the same stage. 

 

Smith’s current quartet plays from 9 till 1 every Wednesday and includes a rhythm section led by pianist Jordan Baskin, who plays Andy’s each Sunday and whose own debut disc, High Card, is among the strongest Chicago releases of 2011.

 

Your Chicago Jazz Examiner spent some time with Smith reminiscing about his improbably long engagement at one club.

 

 

 

MS: None that are printable.

 

 

 

MS: Yeah, do you believe that?  All the kids in my band now are just around that age. The oldest one is Brian Ritter, the drummer; I think he’s 34. Jake Vinsel, the bassist, just turned 30, and Jordan Baskin just turned 32. This whole “30” thing crept up on me. In music you never count on anything.

 

 

Examiner: So obviously,  none of your current bandmates ever heard your first band. What do you remember of that first gig?

 

MS: Well, I know I was nervous, because I was really young, just 25. Me and [Chicago saxophonist] Eric Schneider have always been real tight, and he had been playing at Andy’s and he told me, “Just don’t play too modern in there.” I was doing all my Cannonball Adderley stuff back then, and he said, “Don’t get too modern.” It was the third week of November, and the club gave me till the end of the month – three weeks. Then that got extended, and then extended again; once it got extended for another whole year. After that the negotiations never started up again, and it just continued.

 

 

 

MS: I had Robert Shy on drums, John Whitfield on bass, Jodie Christian on piano, and Ron Friedman on trumpet. I was the youngest guy there. 

 

The vocalist Jo Belle was with us for a while, and pianist Brad Williams played for a long time. Then I had the rhythm section of Ron Perrillo on piano, Dennis Carroll on bass, and George Fludas on drums, I think for about five years. Then Jeremy Kahn played piano, and Joel Spencer was on drums for a while, and for a long time the trio was [pianist] Jim Ryan, John Whitfield, and [drummer] Bob Rummage. And there was another longtime trio with my son, who was 16 and in high school, playing upright bass. His name is Julian – named for Cannonball Adderley – and he ended up going to Berklee, and getting his masters at Rutgers, and is in New York now doing real well.

 

 

Examiner: So the nature of the band has changed, and now you’re the mentor instead of the young kid.

 

MS: I’ve almost always tried to make the band a breeding ground for the younger guys – certainly since the 90s, when I had the band with Ron Perrillo’s trio; I took them to Europe and we were the first band to play jazz in the Sorbonne. I kept each of those bands together for five years or so, and then when the guys got well-known and busy and started subbing out, I’d find new ones. I always like to get some exposure for the younger guys in town, so that people can hear them and check them out. And for me, it’s great because they’re so gung-ho: nobody’s jaded yet. That’s something I learned from being around Maynard and Buddy – get the young guys.

 

 

Examiner: But you sometimes get a little jaded, is that the point?

 

MS: Yeah, you gotta fight that off. I’ve been playing for so long, seen so much, lot of promises that are never kept . . .it's a hard racket we’re in. I’ve been very fortunate. I have so many good friends that maybe don’t do as well as I do, but who I think are better players. But I was in the right place at the right time. I was in Buddy Rich’s band and we were backing Sinatra – the old man – and his people really liked me, so that opened a lot of doors. And from my work with Sinatra, the instrument companies got into me endorsing their products – and that led me to working with production and designing.

 

 

 

MS: I’m designing a new high-end saxophone model for Powell, the [world-famous] flute company. They never made saxes before. It’s all-American-made; the bodies are made in Boston, at their factory, and then the finishing is done in Elkhart, Indiana. All handmade, and very fancy – and expensive; there’s a sterling silver alto that will go for about $10,000, where a new Selmer might cost $7,500. But Powell believes there’s a niche market for them.

 

 

 

MS: I hired a guy who’s a great instrument maker, and we sit there together and I suggest different key layouts, or changes to the size and scale of the keys. I did this for 20 years with another company. But this new model is completely from scratch. I have quite a collection of instruments, with some great vintage horns – I have one of Cannonball’s altos that his brother gave me – and I really like some of those. So we used the same tube dimensions as those old horns, but added a modern keyboard, where the right-hand keys are off to the side a little, instead of in a straight row like the old models had. And we’re making some of the parts out of nickel silver, which doesn’t wear down like brass does – things like that. 

 

 

 

MS: That’s funny, because my wife has just been telling me to get some of them out of the house. I probably have more than 30 altos altogether, in various rooms, and six tenors, and two baritones. Flutes? I have a lot of flutes. But I only have three clarinets. 

 

 

 

MS: Actually, I started there on Thursdays, at the early evening show – they only had the one show back then, and the club closed at 8:30. [Andy’s now brings a second band to the stage each night from 9 until 1.]  It was really busy back then; I think the original crowd was mostly printers, from the newspapers, and from some of the publishing houses that are all gone now. Then I played Tuesdays for about six or seven years, and then I picked Wednesdays – because with my travel schedule, I would often be on tour from Thursday through Sunday. For fifteen years, my work with Sinatra dictated my travel schedule, and then I was also playing in his son’s orchestra; and then Junior kept everybody on the band after his dad passed away. I still do 40 to 50 dates a year with Junior, at least a couple of gigs every month. 

 

 

 

MS: It’s always been an incredible place for me. If any of my friends from around the country were playing over at the [Jazz] Showcase, they would come down after their sets and hang out at Andy’s, since we play till 1. The former owner, Dick Goodman, was quite a character. And now the second generation is running it – his partner Scotty Chisholm’s children. I’ve known them since they were kids.

 

It’s the place I can keep my style honed, and work on my solo chops, which you don’t really get a chance to do in the big band backing a singer. It’s like my workshop.

 

 

The Mike Smith Quartet (featuring the Jordan Baskin Trio) plays every Wednesday, plus this Friday and Saturday, from 9 till 1 at Andy’s. Also this weekend, the superb Chicago trumpeter Tito Carrillo celebrates the release of his first CD, Opening Statement, from 5 until 8:30, preceding Mike Smith both nights..