Chuck Smith
Boise, Idaho resident Chuck Smith is active throughout the Northwest as both a jazz pianist and a music educator. Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, he completed his masters degree at New York's Lehman College.
His teaching experience includes adjunct jazz piano faculty at Boise State University. He currently works as a music educator in the Boise schools. From 1997 through 2000 he also served on staff at the Frank DeMeiro Summer Jazz Camp in Seattle while participating in the Bud Shank Jazz Camp in Port Townsend, Washington. A member of the International Association of Jazz Educators, he performed at their 1999 annual conference in Anaheim, Calif. During the 2000-2001 academic year, he was the recipient of funding through the Idaho Commission on the Arts to supplement his sabbatical to study jazz education.
As a pianist, he has appeared with numerous distinguished artists, including working for three years in Minneapolis with a charter member of Weather Report, drummer Eric Gravatt. While attending graduate school in New York, Smith's freelance work included accompanying vocalist Johnny Hartman, as well as working regularly with a jazz trio at World Trade Center One.
As a member of the Jazz Educators of Idaho, with the Jazz Under the Stars series and Boise's Riverside Jazz Orchestra, Smith has performed with a host of jazz artists and clinicians, including Jan Faddis, Bobby Mintzer, Dave Weckl, Gary Burton, Don Menza, Gary Foster, Bill Watrous, Pete Christlieb, Jeff Jarvis, Bobby Shew, Arturo Sandoval, Ernie Watts, Randy Brecker, Billy Cobham, Lew Soloff, and Ray Charles. At the 2001 Gene Harris Festival, he was a featured performer with Harris' former rhythm section, the L.A. Connection. In August of 2001, he led a jazz trio representing Idaho at the forty-first annual German American Volksfest in Berlin.
CD's recorded in 2001 include a Brazilian project with Seattle vocalist Sandy Anderson, as co-leader for the Smith-Mayhew trio, and as a sideman with Rob Walker's Allegro Jazz Sextet.
Smith was Paul Anka’s musical director for eight years and has performed with Bill Watrous, Bobby Shew, Gary Foster, Bob Mintzer and many other jazz greats. Smith’s latest recording, "New Territory," may be purchased online at www.thenewtrio.com.