Louis Smith

Louis Smith was a talented but under-recorded straight-ahead bop trumpeter who led two dates in the '50s before retiring to teach at the University of Michigan and the nearby Ann Arbor Public School system. For most of his career, he remained a teacher, making a brief comeback in the late '70s before returning to education. It wasn't until the mid-'90s that he resumed a recording career in earnest, turning out a series of albums for the Steeplechase label. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Smith began playing trumpet as a teenager. He graduated high school with a scholarship t...