Benjamin J. Smith was an American jazz alto saxophonist

Alto saxophone

The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...

, tenor saxophonist

Tenor saxophone

The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...

 and clarinetist. He was born in Memphis.

Early career

In the early 1920s, Smith played with local Memphis jazz bands before going on the road with territory band

Territory band

Territory bands were dance bands that crisscrossed specific regions of the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. Beginning in the 1920s, the bands typically had 8 to 12 musicians. These bands typically played one-nighters, 6 or 7 nights a week at venues like VFW halls, Elks Lodges,...

s such as the Connor and McWilliams Boston Serenaders, William Holloway and the Merrymakers, and Eli Rice's Plantation Cotton Pickers.

In Kansas City he led his own bands and in 1930 played with George E. Lee

George E. Lee

George Ewing Lee was an American jazz bandleader.Born in Boonville, Missouri, Lee was the older brother of pianist/singer Julia Lee. He played in a band while serving in the Army in 1917; following this he sang in a vocal quartet, and in 1920 he formed an ensemble of his own...

 and then in Pennsylvania led his own White Hut Orchestra and worked with Blanche Calloway

Blanche Calloway

Blanche Calloway was a Jazz singer, bandleader, and composer from Baltimore, Maryland. She is not as well known as her younger brother Cab Calloway, but she may have been the first woman to lead an all male orchestra. Cab Calloway often credited her with being the reason he got into show business...

 and Charlie Gaines

Charlie Gaines

Charlie H. "Devil" Gaines was an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader.As a teenager Gaines played in brass bands in Philadelphia. Gaines moved to New York City in 1920, where he joined the orchestra of Wilbur Sweatman...

.

Around that time he recorded with the Washboard Rhythm Kings.

Arriving in New York City in 1934, he worked with Benny Carter

Benny Carter

Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...

, Claude Hopkins

Claude Hopkins

Claude Driskett Hopkins was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader.-Biography:Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1903. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his birth. His parents were on the faculty of Howard University...

, and Hot Lips Page and into the 1940s worked in the bands of Lucky Millinder

Lucky Millinder

Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder was an American rhythm and blues and swing bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang, his showmanship and musical taste made his bands successful...

, Andy Kirk

Andy Kirk

Andrew Dewey Kirk was a jazz saxophonist and tubist best known as a bandleader of the "Twelve Clouds of Joy," popular during the swing era....

, Snub Mosley

Snub Mosley

Lawrence Leo "Snub" Mosley was an American jazz trombonist.-Biography:...

, among others.

He composed "I Dreamt I Dwelled in Harlem".

Discography

• 1951: "By the Candleglow" / "Slippery Smith" - Ben Smith Quartet (Savoy), with Pete Martin, Artie Long, Bob Bushnell