Willie "The Lion" Smith

Irrepressible raconteur, indelible stylist, and giant of the Harlem stride piano, Willie “The Lion” Smith was an iconic American jazz pioneer. Known as a “musician’s musician,” his versatile career spanned ragtime, vaudeville, Broadway, and Tin Pan Alley – influencing legends like Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie. As part of the Peabody Award-winning documentary series “Jazz Profiles,” this presentation about Willie Smith was produced in 1997 by Sally Pl...