(Jazz) WILLIE “THE LION” SMITH [ca. 1945] Portrait by Bill Gottlieb

[New York]: Bill Gottlieb, [ca. 1945]. Vintage original 9 1/2 x 7 1/2″ (24 x 19 cm) borderless black-and-white photo, mounted on artboard. In extreme right bottom, “Photo” has been written in ink over printed name of photographer Bill Gottlieb.

Willie “the Lion” Smith was one of the great Harlem pianists and an acknowledged master of the stride piano, which arose from ragtime and was characterized by a rhythmic sound and fast tempos.

The liner notes of the 1958 LP The Legend of Willie “the Lion” Smith (Grand Awards Records, GA 33-368) state: “Duke Ellington has never lost his awe of the Lion’s prowess.” It quotes Ellington as saying, “Willie the Lion was the greatest influence of all the great jazz piano players who have come along. He has a beat that stays in the mind.”

This really iconic portrait of Smith, with his characteristically jaunty expression and cigar in mouth, is one of a group of portraits of jazz icons which Gottlieb executed between 1937 and about 1948. This portrait, along with other examples of Gottlieb’s work, is now in the Library of Congress. (Wikipedia)