Cladys “Jabbo” Smith

Cladys “Jabbo” Smith (trumpeter, trombonist, and vocalist), born in Georgia on December 24, 1908, learned to play trumpet at Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina, where he was raised from age 6 to 16.  He ran away from the orphanage and soon became a professional musician, performing in Philadelphia, Atlantic City, and eventually, New York City, where in the second half of the 1920s, he made his first important recordings and worked with Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, and Fats Waller.

In the 1930s, Jabbo, whose trumpet playing was considered by Roy Eldridge, Milt Hinton, and others to rival that of Louis Armstrong, moved to Milwaukee, where he performed at venues such as the Moon Glow and The Flame and took a day job at Avis car rental. He had faded into obscurity until he was “rediscovered” in the late 1960s.

Through the 1970s and the 1980s, he appeared in New York City, New Orleans, France, Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. He died in New York City on January 16, 1991.

Listen to Jabbo Smith playing trumpet on "Jazz Battle" with the Rhythm Aces, recorded in Chicago, January 29, 1929 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UovMdK-XEoE