Sonelius Smith

• Name — Sonelius Smith • Birth Name — S. L. Smith • Alias — S. Smith, Sonelius Laurel Smith • Born — 17 December 1942 • Birthplace — Hillhouse, Mississippi • Genre — Jazz, Spiritual Jazz, Soul Jazz • Occupation — Pianist and Composer • Instrument — Piano • Years Active — 1970-present • Label — Soul Note, Strata-East Records • Current Member Of — The Sonelius Smith Trio • Past Member Of — The New Directions, Jazzmobile, The Piano Choir, The David Murray Quartet, Flight to Sanity, the Lo-Fly Sextet

Born in Hillhouse, Mississippi, Smith learned to play piano by ear. In 1948, after his family relocated to Memphis, he began receiving classical training, which later won him a music scholarship to the historically Black university now known as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, but then known as the Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College. In college, Smith played in a small ensemble, and studied piano and theory with Josephus Robinson and John Stubblefield. In 1969, he graduated with a major in music education. After graduation, Smith began touring Europe with The New Directions, which featured Stubblefield and musicians James Leary, Larry Ross and Benjamin Jones. Smith relocated to New York City at the end of 1969, and began working with Rashid Ali's Jazzmobile jazz quartet. That led to his arrangements and compositions for singer, songwriter and music producer Bob Crewe's Saturday Music company. A year-long tour with Rahsaan Roland Kirk followed, as did collaborations with Kirk on the studio album Blacknuss, the live album Rahsaan Rahsaan and Natural Black Inventions: Root Strata, a second studio album. In 1973, Smith joined jazz pianist Stanley Cowell's ensemble. In the mid-1970s, he worked with Shamek Farrah and Flight to Sanity. In 1974, he served as musical director for Nancy Fales' Ark, directed by Ralph Lee at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City's East Village. Toward the end of the 1970s, he played with J.R. Mitchell, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Warren Smith, and Wilber Morris. In the 1980s, Smith worked with Andrew Cyrille and joined David Murray's quartet. Throughout a long musical career, Smith also collaborated with Kenny Dorham, Roy Brooks, Charles Mingus, Roland Kirk, Robin Kenyatta, Rashied Ali, Warren Smith, Frank Foster, Harold Vick, Donald Byrd, Elvin Jones, Archie Shepp, Freddie Hubbard, Art Blakey and Lionel Hampton. As founder of the eponymous Sonelius Smith Trio, Smith collaborates with bass player Adam Kahan and baritone saxophonist Claire Daly.

Between 1973 and 1986, Smith worked as an educator for the New Muse Community Museum. In the 1990s, he also began working for The Harlem School of the Arts, in addition to teaching at the Third Street Music School Settlement.