Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Patrick Mungo Smythe was born on May 2, 1923 in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of a solicitor. Educated at Winchester College he went on to study law at Oxford University. When World War II interrupted his studies, he enlisted with the Royal Air Force, serving for five years as a night-fighter pilot. After the war, he resumed his legal studies, this time at the University of Edinburgh where he was also recognized as a talented classical and jazz pianist.

Upon graduation, he spent several years in his father’s law firm, before leaving Edinburgh for London in the late Fifties in search of a professional career in music. For a brief time, Pat worked with Jamaican trumpeter Dizzy Reece, and in 1960 he joined the quintet led by another Jamaican, alto saxophonist Joe Harriott, who was beginning playing his revolutionary brand of free jazz. Smythe’s pivotal role highlighted one of the principal differences between Harriott and his American counterpart Ornette Coleman, who viewed the harmonic qualities of the piano as incompatible with his own brand of free improvisation.

The Harriott quintet stayed together until 1965, recording three ground-breaking albums ~ Free Form, Abstract and Movement, while also holding a long-term residency at the Marquee Club in Soho. Smythe stayed with Harriott after the dissolution of the quintet, becoming a key member of the group Indo-Jazz Fusions, co-led by Harriott and the Indian composer and violinist John Mayer. This double quintet of five Indian and five jazz musicians aimed to fuse Indian raga structures with jazz improvisation, performing and recording extensively until Harriott’s departure ended the project in 1969. With his knowledge of Indian ragas, Smythe was considered by Mayer to be the bridge between the two camps.

Over a diverse career, he worked and recorded with many other great names in jazz when they passed through Britain, including Stan Getz, Paul Gonsalves, Ben Webster, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Zoot Sims and Bob Brookmeyer. He worked mainly as an accompanist in the London clubs throughout the 1970s, helping bring Scottish jazz vocalist Carol Kidd to prominence.

After a long illness, pianist Pat Smythe passed away on May 6, 1983 in London, England. The Pat Smythe Memorial Trust was established two years later, as a registered charity to provide financial awards to young jazz musicians of outstanding talent. It was funded entirely from benefit concerts and gave awards to such musicians as Julian Arguelles and Jason Rebello. The trust is now defunct.

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