An extraordinary and apparently unpublished handwritten statement on playing music, composed by the American jazz pianist and one of the masters of the stride style, usually grouped with James P. Johnson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 in its golden age, from about 1920 to 1943. He was also an early influence on and longtime friend to Ellington. 1 page. Paris, France. "10 Boulevard Momartre, Hotel Ronceray," Feb. 6, 1950. Blue ink on thin paper. Fine.
In full [all sic]: "When I play I play with my heart and my soul and with Vision a real artist always has Vision and some men can see farther then others I never have to think of what I am going to do because I am gifted With spiritual srenght and as I play my spiritual mind works like my fingers and when I start to play I go in to a different world and I am happy and I dont come out of that until I have finished playing and I talk as fast as I play and also sing as fast as I play and I love to smoke a cigar while I am playing I sing with a cigar and talk with one and play with one I never have to write any thing it is always there with me I love Jazz and it will always stay here because it has a meaning to it from Willie the Lion Smith who Loves music I live for it"
The statement, unpunctuated and full of idiomatic spellings, was possibly dictated rather than written in Smith's own hand. The few confirmed examples of Smith's writing we have handled or seen have been in block lettering, and though the spacing, flow and completion of this document on a single side certainly indicate an authorial hand, unfortunately, we are not able to positively confirm that Smith ever wrote in cursive script. From the collection of Parisian art dealer and collector Michel de Bry (1890-1970), who with the legendary jazz impresario Hugues Panassié, organized the historic 1948 Festival International du Jazz in Nice.
An extraordinary and apparently unpublished handwritten statement on playing music, composed by the American jazz pianist and one of the masters of the stride style, usually grouped with James P. Johnson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 in its golden age, from about 1920 to 1943. He was also an early influence on and longtime friend to Ellington. 1 page. Paris, France. "10 Boulevard Momartre, Hotel Ronceray," Feb. 6, 1950. Blue ink on thin paper. Fine.
In full [all sic]: "When I play I play with my heart and my soul and with Vision a real artist always has Vision and some men can see farther then others I never have to think of what I am going to do because I am gifted With spiritual srenght and as I play my spiritual mind works like my fingers and when I start to play I go in to a different world and I am happy and I dont come out of that until I have finished playing and I talk as fast as I play and also sing as fast as I play and I love to smoke a cigar while I am playing I sing with a cigar and talk with one and play with one I never have to write any thing it is always there with me I love Jazz and it will always stay here because it has a meaning to it from Willie the Lion Smith who Loves music I live for it"
The statement, unpunctuated and full of idiomatic spellings, was possibly dictated rather than written in Smith's own hand. The few confirmed examples of Smith's writing we have handled or seen have been in block lettering, and though the spacing, flow and completion of this document on a single side certainly indicate an authorial hand, unfortunately, we are not able to positively confirm that Smith ever wrote in cursive script. From the collection of Parisian art dealer and collector Michel de Bry (1890-1970), who with the legendary jazz impresario Hugues Panassié, organized the historic 1948 Festival International du Jazz in Nice.