Ray Smith

Dr. Ray Smith is the educator’s educator. He is a master pedagogue and is respected as such by all of his peers. When he does clinics for educators, they flock to find out what they can learn. This book represents teaching ideas from forty years of directing jazz bands in Utah and Kentucky. The proof is in the pudding as they say. Smith’s BYU big band, Synthesis, has toured the world (Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Japan, China, Brazil, Russia, Siberia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, England, Scotland, Spain, and Portugal); performed at numerous jazz festivals (Montreux, Umbria, North Sea, San Sabastian, Loule, Birmingham, Wigam, Marlboro, Edinburgh, Kongsberg, Pori, Lionel Hampton, IAJE, and JEN Jazz Festivals) and accolades repeatedly (Downbeat Top University Jazz Band, Downbeat Outstanding Performance, 1st Place Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz Festival, 1st Place Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, Musicfest USA Finals, NAJE-Epcot Festival Winner, and more); and recorded numerous CDs (Downtime, A Kenton Celebration, The Day After Yesterday, Flyin’ High, High Road, Original Compositions, Live at Nauvoo: Most Requested Tunes, Time Flies, Time After Time, Eye of the Hurricane, Distinctly Definitive, Shapin’ Up, Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1988, Live at the Montreux Jazz Festival 1996, Synthesis ’86-’87), and has performed as the Harry James Big Band on the Queen Elizabeth II from New York to London. In 2019, the big band will tour Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Dominican Republic.

Dr. Smith’s teaching is informed by his world class performance skills, and his performing credits are equally impressive as his teaching credits. As a performer, Smith is equally at home in either classical or jazz-related styles and is adept at all five of the woodwind instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone. He also performs and records on the Yamaha WX7 Midi Electronic Wind Instrument and the AKAI E.W.I. and often plays recorders, pennywhistles, and other ethnic flutes in the recording studio. He has well over 200 Music CD credits and has recorded on many film scores and television themes and jingles such as The Sandlot, Mi Familia, The Swan Princess, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Ricky Lake Show, Buick, Chevy, etc., and many Canadian and German television and radio themes. Dr. Smith performs periodically with the Utah Symphony and The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and is a regular with the Utah Saxophone Quartet and Q’d Up, a jazz quintet, as well as the jazz saxophone quartet, FOUR.

Smith also does clinics and performances at colleges and high schools and adjudicates at jazz festivals. His pedagogical credentials stem from learning from the masters: David Baker, Dominic Spera, Jamey Aebersold, Jerry Coker, George Ross, and Newell Dayley. In the summers, he teaches at various jazz workshops including the Birch Creek Jazz Camp in Wisconsin where he received the Woody Herman Award for musical excellence and professionalism. In 1998, he was given the Voice of Jazz Award for the State of Utah; and in 2008, he was recognized by the International Association for Jazz Education as the first Utah Jazz Master, a lifetime achievement award “for profound contributions and virtuoso performance in the field of jazz in Utah.”

Education:

D.M., Woodwinds Performance, Indiana University, 1982.

M.M., Woodwinds Performance, Indiana University, 1976.

B.M., Music Education, Brigham Young University, 1975.