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Raised in the small town of Bowling Green, Missouri, Paul started out as a trumpet player. And it was during those formative years that his older brother Toley Smith was a significant first influence, exposing young Paul to the world of music. And jazz. "Toley, who is 18 years older, came back from World War II with records by Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong," remembers Paul. "He also had a rehearsal band that met at our house, and he helped me organize my first band made up of school kids. Our first job was at the local VFW hall! Toley taught me jazz heads and took me to his gigs when I was in junior high. He'd even let me play some of the melodies on those gigs... But then the other guys would solo!" As a result of this tutelage, Paul, still a trumpet player, was soon working with musicians from neighboring Hannibal, Quincy (IL), Hermann, and St. Louis. "It was great training from some very understanding and patient musicians." Next came Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg where the plan was "to get a teaching degree so I'd have something to fall back on if I couldn't be a trumpet player." It was a fortuitous decision. The trumpet eventually began to fade as the instrument of choice, the indirect result of new jazz explorations and "some fooling around at the piano." "I was lucky to find a drummer and a bass player who also were interested in learning more about jazz," Paul says. "The first thing we learned was 'Blues in C.' I'm still working on that!" After graduation from CMSU in 1965, and before beginning a first teaching job in Raytown, a Kansas City, Missouri, suburb, Paul landed a six-night-a-week gig at the Lake of the Ozarks playing standards and dance music. It was during that summer that an important life-long contact was made. " (Cornetist) Gary Sivils came to the Lake to hear (singer) Marilyn Maye; she was a friend of Gary's and someone he'd occasionally performed with in Kansas City. Marilyn was working at the same resort where we had our summer job, and after one of her shows, Gary came to hear our band. He even sat in. I was terrified." Thus began what was to become a 30 year association with the respected jazz cornetist and band leader. In the spring of 1966, and still newly arrived in the Kansas City area, Paul Smith landed a first steady gig backing singer Kay Dennis. That engagement, too, was six nights a week, and it was a sign of things to come. "Working with Kay was another wonderful learning experience, and it enabled me to discover how much I enjoy working with singers... something, I'm told, that is very unusual for a piano player!" It was also during this time that the strain of maintaining a daytime teaching job along with the life of a nocturnal jazz musician first began to take a toll. Enter another important mentor, jazz saxophonist, educator, and music store manager, Jess Cole. "Jess and I had many long talks about many different things in those days," says Paul. "About playing jazz, he used to say, 'It ain't what you play, it's how you play it.' Words I still live by to this day. And about trying to teach and play, Jess said, 'You have the best of both worlds! You teach junior high band -- without a lot of after-school activities -- and you get to play jazz in saloons, which is great therapy! Stay where you are.' So I did. It was timely advice." Also in 1966, the aforementioned collaboration with Gary Sivils officially began. "Gary was hired as the house band at the Channel 3 Lounge in Kansas City and he needed a piano player. He remembered me from the summer of '65, and I'm sure the only reason I was hired was because everyone else was booked!" Thus began one of Paul Smith's most meaningful partnerships; and an educational one at that. "Gary literally taught me how to play piano in a jazz combo," says Paul. "Whenever I would do something wrong, he would explain the mistake in a way that was never offensive, and he would encourage me to try out his suggestion." One of the most memorable incarnations of the Gary Sivils band came about in 1971 when a 16 year old guitarist from Lee's Summit, MO named Pat Metheny joined the group. It was an addition that made the band one of the most popular in the Kansas City area. "People would come from all over to hear this teenage genius play," Paul recalls. "He always amazed everyone." In 1973 (the same year Smith began a new teaching job in nearby Kearney, MO), yet another version of the Sivils band, with Smith still on piano, began a year and a half stint at Kansas City's Playboy Club. "We backed up local singers like Rob Richardson and Kristy Tucker (Marilyn Maye's daughter), and warmed up headline acts in the showroom. We were even sent up to the Lake Geneva club for two weeks in '74." The Kansas City Playboy Club eventually closed in early 1975. The mid-1970s, and the years that would follow, marked a period of increased activity for Paul Smith as an accompanist. By virtue of performances made possible by the Jewish Community Center, The Kansas City "Friends of Jazz," and the Topeka Jazz Workshop, Paul was able to perform with many of the biggest names in jazz including Gary Foster, Ruby Braff, Urbie Green, Bob Kindred, Gerry Niewood, Warren Vache, Carl Fontana, Phil Bodner, Doc Cheetham, Kenny Davern, Joe Wilder, Jack Sheldon, Red Holloway, Carol Sloane, Billy Butterfield, Marshall Royal, Bill Watrous, Nick Brignola, Scott Hamilton, Rich Matteson, Bud Shank and Bob Wilber. There were also other area jazz events in the coming years that enabled Paul to work with Louie Bellson, Buddy DeFranco, Jethro Burns, Conte Candoli, Eddie Harris, Carmell Jones, David Liebman, Marilyn Maye, John McNeil, Anita O'Day, Diane Reeves, Kim Richmond, Charlie Rouse, Rob McConnell, Randy Brecker, Ed Soph and Steve Houghton. There was no shortage of work during this time on the local front. In 1978, Paul joined a quintet co-led by trumpeter Mike Metheny and trombonist/UMKC professor John Leisenring (the group appeared at the '78 Berlin Jazz Festival). And from 1978 to '79 he worked one of the more popular weekly jam sessions led by saxophonist John Lyman at the Crown Center Hotel's "Signboard Bar." In 1984, Paul traveled to Montreaux, Switzerland, as a member of guitarist Steve Cardenas' quintet, and in the summer of '84 he joined the Mike Metheny Quartet for a brief tour of the Midwest. In 1985, Paul became an adjunct professor at the University of Missouri/Kansas City, performing with the newly-formed faculty "Jazztet," a group that still plays several concerts yearly, both as a featured band as well as backup for visiting artists. Over the years, Paul Smith has also found time to appear on numerous recordings. In 1980, there was a project with arranger/singer Kirby Shaw; in 1985, an album with woodwind specialist Gary Foster; and also in 1985, a session with saxophonist Kim Park titled Quartette. Paul can be heard on two 1992 recordings, The Kansas City Spirit Orchestra (co-led by Smith and John Leisenring), and Mike Metheny's, From Then 'Til Now. And he is also featured on Gary Sivils' 1996 debut CD, You Must Believe In Music. With the addition of singer Karrin Allyson to the Kansas City jazz community in 1990, another important musical association began for Paul Smith. As the primary pianist in Allyson's band, Paul has appeared on four of her albums for Concord Jazz (I Didn't Know About You, Sweet Home Cookin' Man, Azure Te' and Collage) and has accompanied her on tours that have taken the group to Chicago (IL), Paris, France, Santa Barbara, Carmel (CA), Denver (CO), Tucson, (AZ), Charleston (SC), Minneapolis/St. Paul (MN), and St. Louis (MO). There was even a 1996 appearance with the Kansas City Symphony under the direction of William McGlaughlin (host of NPR's "St. Paul Sunday"). Currently, Paul Smith can be heard performing with various jazz musicians in the nightclubs of Kansas City. Look for him in the groups of Karrin Allyson, Gary Sivils and Mike Metheny, or when he backs various national acts in concert and in the clubs.
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Since 1965, Kansas City-based jazz pianist Paul Smith has worked with a plethora of locally and nationally known musicians. The list is impressive: Bob Brookmeyer, Red Rodney, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Phil Woods, Clark Terry, Pat Metheny... And that's just the tip of the iceberg.