Tiny Parham

from Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It, page 210:

He put so much oomph into his horn that I have seen a drunken noisy cabaret crowd get quiet as a mouse when Joe [Smith] started off on a sweet sentimental tune. Once a drunken fellow, crowding up close to listen, bumped the bell of his horn, hitting Joe's mouth a hard lick. This would have made the average musician mad as hell. Joe just smiled and said, "Pops, be careful. You don't know what you're doing to me." Joe was like that. he played the cleanest, purest trumpet of all time. His tone had soul and packed so much emotion that it could easily have been mistaken for a woman singing.
cite as

Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro, Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It (London, 1992), p. 210. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1435156627008 accessed: 29 March, 2024

Listeners

Tiny Parham
Organist, Bandleader, Pianist
1900-1943

Listening to

hide composers
jazz trumpet performance
written by Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis
performed by Joe Smith

Experience Information

Medium live
Listening Environment in the company of others, indoors, in public

Originally submitted by 5011Henning on Wed, 24 Jun 2015 15:37:07 +0100
Approved on Tue, 30 Aug 2016 14:38:08 +0100