Smith, Pine Top (Clarence)

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Smith, Pine Top (Clarence)

Smith, Pine Top (Clarence), singer, boogie-woogie pianist; b. Troy, Ala., June 11, 1904; d. Chicago, III, March 15, 1929. Raised in Birmingham, Ala., Smith worked as an entertainer in various Pittsburgh clubs before playing solo piano on T.O.B.A circuit; he also worked for a time as accompanist for Ma Rainey. He settled in Chicago in the late 1920s and was accidentally shot dead during a dance-hall fracas where he was performing. He gained posthumous fame through his composition “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie”—that he had recorded in 1928.

—John Chilton/Lewis Porter

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