Two weeks after World Steelpan Day on August 11, The Ben Webster Foundation gave Rudy Smith its Honorary Award because of his contribution to jazz. In the 1960s, Smith was the first musician to create a jazz style on alto pans. The Foundation says Smith is the last of the generation of great jazz musicians who made Denmark their home and musical base. The Award honors Smith’s contribution to the spirit of Ben Webster and jazz throughout a lifetime career. The Foundation has been honoring jazz musicians since 1984. Rudy Smith has also been inducted into the National Heroes Steelband Hall of Fame in Trinidad and Tobago.
The talented player is a legend among panists. He made his first record when only 12. He says his musical style was inspired by vibraphonist Milt Jackson, J.S. Bach and the saxophonist John Coltrane. He left Trinidad in the 1960s and settled in Stockholm. There he joined other international musicians active on the Swedish scene like Bob Marley, Keith Jarrett, Cyndee Peters, Eric Bibb, Ahmadu Jarr, Johnny Dyani and Johnny Nash. In 1983, Smith moved to Copenhagen and started his own quartet. They have toured Europe, the Caribbean, the USSR and South Africa in the past 40 years. Smith also performed as a soloist with many internationally known jazz musicians.
Smith was the first to record a jazz album with a pannist as lead (Still Around, 1984), and the first to record a steel band with a jazz group (Time to move On, 1999). Now in his 80’s, Smith is still an active arranger, steel pan maker and tuner. His latest recording is Glass World (2019) on Stunt Records. A few years ago the Swedish record company Caprice released his retrospective What Pan did for Me. It includes recordings from 1956 to 2000, and comes with a voluminous booklet.