SMITH, WILLIAM MCLEISH

SMITH, WILLIAM McLEISH (WILLIE). Jazz saxophonist (25 November 1910 in Charleston, South Carolina; 7 March 1967 in Los Angeles, California). He began study of the clarinet at the age of twelve. He obtained his musical education at Case Technical College in Memphis, Tennessee, and at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. His early professional experiences were with the Boston Serenaders in Memphis (1926) and the Beaty Conner Quartet (summer, 1927). While at Fisk he met James (Jimmie) Lunceford) Lunceford...