Superb cornet/trumpet player ahead of his time
THE world lost one of its great musicians on February 15 when former Dunedin musician Kenneth (Ken) George Smith died in Melbourne, aged 88.
Mr Smith was skilled in many aspects of music, particularly brass music and brass bands.
He was a superb cornet/trumpet player; a stylish and clever arranger; a skilled and sensitive adjudicator; a world championshipwinning conductor; and a willing and intelligent educationalist.
As a cornet/trumpet player, Mr Smith was without peer in New Zealand history.
He won the Cornet Championship of New Zealand in 1948, 1949 and 1950, and for four years he was featured soloist with one of the world’s top brass bands — the Fairey Aviation Works Band.
A few years ago, the 4barsrest website (the most popular website in the world for brass players) listed who they believed to be the 10 best cornet players in the world of all time.
Mr Smith was listed at
No 7, the only
New Zealander to be mentioned.
The website said: ‘‘It is sometimes very difficult to describe the effect a person has when they come to a staid, sedate, sober country, and hit it like a comet from outer space.
‘‘The comet in question was a New Zealander by the name of Ken Smith.
‘‘He was nothing short of sensational, with his style, tone and amazing technique literally placing him years ahead of any of his contemporaries.’’
Only the older generation will recognise many of the other names in the list, but it is worth noting that Wynton Marsalis features below Mr Smith.
Mr Smith was guest soloist with the ‘‘allconquering’’ 1953 National Band of New Zealand.
At the time he was playing with the Fairey Aviation Works Band but, when time allowed, he would travel to wherever the National Band was in the United Kingdom and play as a guest soloist.
On occasions, he also sat in the band to assist when a cornet player was ill.
There are some magnificent recordings available of Mr Smith playing with piano accompaniment from Maurice Till and Johannes Giesen.
There is also a tutorial album called The Voice of the Cornet, with Mr Smith playing cornet and brass legend Harry Mortimer commentating.
These all need to be digitised to preserve them for younger generations.
Mr Smith was responsible in New Zealand for many first performances of major works for trumpet and orchestra, and trum pet and piano with Maurice Till, including concertos by Haydn, Addison, the second Bach Brandenburg, and the Sonata by Hindemith.
As a conductor, it is fair to say Mr Smith did not enjoy competition for competition’s sake, but he often quoted the saying to the effect that the purpose of competition was to pace ourselves along the road to perfection.
In this sense, he was like his famous father K. G. L. Smith, who also had tremendous success as a conductor.
Each of them had a different personality, but both were driven by a desire to achieve perfection in music.
In brass banding, Mr Smith conducted the St Kilda Brass Band in Dunedin to win the New Zealand Championships in 1955.
He was then, and still is, the youngest conductor to win the New Zealand A Grade section.
He won again in 1967, also with St Kilda.
In 1985, Mr Smith was the musical director of the National Band of New Zealand, winning with the highest ever points in the Premier Division at the World Music Contest at Kerkrade, in the Netherlands.
He also conducted the Dunedin Choral Society, the Operatic Society for 10 years, and the Dunedin Civic Orchestra in full orchestral and chamber music concerts, including the Mobil Song Quest final won by Kiri Te Kanawa in 1966.
While living in Sydney, he also conducted the Sydney Conservatorium of Music Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
As conductor of the Woolston Band (Christchurch), he won the test piece for four consecutive years and the championship twice.
As an adjudicator, Mr Smith judged at the National Championships on six occasions. In 1958, he was the youngest to do so.
He has also judged at major eisteddfods in Australia.
Most importantly, he is the only New Zealander to have adjudicated at the British Open Championship. He did so twice — once in 1994 and again in 1999.
Over a lifetime, Mr Smith specialised in arranging for brass band with more than 100 scores prepared.
Many of the arrangements were featured by the 1985 National Band of New Zealand on its European tour, and conducted by Mr Smith.
In 198687, he was commissioned by the Sydney (New South Wales) Festival to arrange Peter Sculthorpe’s Child of Australia for the celebration of Australia’s bicentenary on Australia Day.
When referring to his arrangements, Mr Smith often quoted jazz trumpet virtuoso Miles Davis: ‘‘For me, music and life are all about style’’.
As a teacher, Mr Smith was in a league of his own. I was privileged while at university to have tuition from him for a year.
His lessons were better and more interesting than any lecture I had at university.
For a few years, he was the Brass Band Association of New Zealand’s director of education.
He moved education to a completely new zone and was extremely passionate about it.
In his younger days, the education system in New Zealand had some flaws. For some reason, it would not accept him as an itinerant teacher of brass instruments.
In one of the great responses of all time, Mr Smith went to Australia, where he eventually became chairman of the department of brass and percussion at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
In 1998, he was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to music, but in life he never received accolades to the level he deserved.
He was undoubtedly a man ahead of his time. — Kevin Dell