Ben Smith

An examination of the not surprisingly large number of people named Ben Smith credited with doing things on recordings reveals that one of the earliest born was also one of the most prolific. Some subtracting needs to take place in references such as Tom Lord's massive jazz discography, however, since there is a tendency to assume Ben Smith the reed player born in 1905 and Ben Smith the drummer who worked with bandleaders such as Wayne Horvitz in the '80s are the same person, which they are not. The former Smith is considered a historic jazz artist with early activities invol...