Ken Smith—master trumpeter

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32679, 7 August 1971, Page 12

Ken Smith—master trumpeter

(By

KEN COATES)

“I suppose,” mused Ken Smith, trumpet player par excellence, “my career has been one of rebelliousness. It all began when I felt I must escape from the traditions of brass band playing because I hated to be told how to play my instrument.”

This comment contains something of the individuality and special talent which 20 years ago had launched this well-known New Zealander on a brilliant musical career in England. Invited by Harry Mortimer to join the famous Fairey Aviation Works Band as principal comet soloist in 1950, Ken Smith went on to play widely overseas, including 8.8. C. broadcasts, as a soloist. He played in oratorio with a number of famous singers, and with orchestras as concerto soloist Then front the world stage, he returned in 1954 to New Zealand. His name is a household word in this country, yet until he returned from Australia to play with ' the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra recently, little has been heard of him. For the last four years, he and his family have lived in Melbourne where he is a specialist brass teacher for the Education Department of Victoria. But Ken Smith, aged 40, father of four children ranging from 17 down to nine, is certainly no less a musician today, and in a sense is still a rebel. His brass band background seems to rest uneasily on this outstanding New Zealander still relatively young. And he is quite candid about saying that it has not exactly helped his professional music, career. As a trumpet or comet soloist, Ken Smith is among the world’s best. But all the same, he is sensitive on the question of qualifications and What the absence of a music degree or diploma can mean in some circles. Yet perhaps without his early association with brass bands, he would never have made the name for himself which he achieved. "We went to live in Westport in 1939, and my father continued the family tradition by conducting a band there,” Ken recalls. I asked him about his father: “As a matter of fact, although a small man, he used to carry coal, delivering it on his back. He was a storeman with the council for a while, and I know he used to drive trucks down the Buller Gorge. I don’t know many men who have worked so hard physically as he did." It was at this point that Ken Smith, made the point about his career being one of rebelliousness. “It was then that I first began to try to escape the traditions of brass band playing—l hated being told how to play. “My father was a strong personality and something of a dictator in this matter, although to .give him his due he eventually realised I would have to go and find my own levels." Ken said he saw brass bands as being too tied to the past. “I wanted to escape the clutches of this.” He saw new ways of playing and took a more sensitive approach. I The big break Then came Ken Smith’s big break. He was in Australia and was noticed by Frank Wright who was judging a band contest And good talent scout that be wax Wright mentioned the promising young comet player to Harry Mortimer who invited him to England, of being fifeW tfatf herecaSSr He Bundled out with serious - group wont tome thing virtually unheard of for brass ptayers at that time, ha says. Now there to a great deal dopeto the orchestral bratt field, but brass ensemble* had grown Up largely in the teat 20 years. The movement was spearheaded in the United States and a great deal of early music was discovered and played, he added. "I pre-

pared a lot of music myself and we played in the 8.8.C.’s Third Programme. Various combinations of 11 players were used.” Why did he return to New Zealand? Ken says he can’t pin-point one reason, but recalls that he just did not feel like spending the rest of his life in the brass band movement in Britain. In addition, he had married a New Zealand girl who went to Britain and they both thought this country a better place in which to bring up children. In 1954, the couple returned to New Zealand and as well as giving many performances of major works for the trumpet, Ken Smith conducted the St Kilda Municipal Band of Dunedin to win the New Zealand championships in 1955 and again in Ken recalls cheerily his days spent working in a bank in Dunedin "with the wrong kind of notes.” And he has a kind thought for the bank officer making a routine inspection who caught him practising in a room at the back, but who merely asked with understanding how things were doing. Move to Melbourne In 1967, the family moved to Melbourne. One reason for this was the job offer made to Ken Smith, and the other concern for their children’s musical education. In Melbourne, as music specialist, Ken says he has five secondary schools under his direction and teaches an average of 30 pupils a day. Brass instrument playing is his speciality, although he has two school orchestras to develop, and a concert band of woodwind and brass. "It is fun really and very rewarding,” he says. “Young people themselves are rewarding especially when you can get alongside them and get to know their problems/* As yet he has not

come across a child with exceptional talent.

How about the future? Keh Smith admits that he would like to do the same thing he is doing in Melbourne, in this country. Both he and his wife Lois, who accompanied him on his New Zealand trip, were nostalgic for this country. “I am doing work I like doing, but my desire is still to play a lot,” says Ken. “It was my first time on the concert platform with a symphony orchestra for 12 yean recently and I could not afford another break for that long. “My great desire is to make recordings showing what the instrument is capable of rather than producing a distinctive sound or style. “I don’t want people to say when they hear me playis typically Ken This comment sums up the whole attitude of this musician who has proved so, versatile. He explains • that although there are many wonderful brass players who develop their own very good sound, technique and style, this is not what he strives for. “My feeling is that the instrument should serve the music that is being played, and this dictates the style. This is the challenge." And so it is that he describes the cornet as ideal for some music, and the trumpet useless. And for other music,/ the cornet is quite the wrong instrument, and the trumpet ideal. In his case he carries an orchestral trumpet and a baroque or smaller trumpet giving a higher pitched more vocal sound. With these available, he can provide a "dark, warm sound, brilliant sound, militant or heraldic sound,” as the music dictates. Although financial backing will affect the type of accompaniment he will receive, Ken Smith says he might have to make do with organ or piano, when making recordings. But one thing he is firm on—in the next few years of his playing career he must record the variety of sounds made by the brass instruments of which he is the master. No jazz lore I asked purist Ken Smith how, with its obvious financial lure, he bad been able to resist the lucrative dance band and jazz field. He finds it is not possible to have a foot in both camp*. Certainly the big name jazz trumpeter might occasionally play a Haydn trumpet concerto just to show he can do so. But it won’t be Haydn, he says. "There is much more than just getting the notes; art begins where technique ends,” comments Ken Smith. Ken Smith’s personality reflects a man with strong religious conviction*. He rays he lend* support to the Salvation Army, and he • attended a festival in Wellington and also preached at it •The Salvation Army has many greater composers in its tanks than the brass band movement,” he says. He is quite adamant that he will not return to Britain. If he goes anywhere it will be "back home.” "In New Zealand,” say be and his wife, "there is a sense of belonging. You can walk down Collins Street to Melbourne every day and meet no-one you know. And not belonging can be very lonely.” „ ... As to the younger Smith*, Belinda-Jane, 12, learn* ballet and the piano; Martin, Ig, is taking violin and piano lessons; Fraser, 9, might be a woodwind player, and Craig, 17, could be a natural horn player. Whether it to Australia or New Zealand for the Smith family in the future one thing is certain: music will continue to play a large pert in their lives. \