Willie "The Lion" Smith

Willie "The Lion" Smith

William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholoff Smith (23 November 1893 – 18 April 1973), a.k.a. "The Lion", was an American jazz pianist and one of the masters of the stride style, usually grouped with James P. Johnson and Thomas "Fats" Waller as the three greatest practitioners of the genre from its Golden Age, c. 1920–1943.

Read more about Willie "The Lion" Smith:  Early Life, Music Career, Personal Life, Legacy, Recordings

Famous quotes containing the words lion and/or smith:

    The lion dying thrusteth forth his paw
    And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage
    To be o’erpowered.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    We grow with years more fragile in body, but morally stouter, and can throw off the chill of a bad conscience almost at once.
    —Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946)