Introducing the band

On Guitar: Howard Smith

Howard Smith’s first instrument, briefly, was his sister’s Albert System clarinet. Then she bought him a guitar, which he taught himself to play. In high school he played sousaphone and then tenor sax. About that time he started playing with a dance group and in college had his own band, The Music Masters. He also played in the 737th Army Air Corps Band at Altus, Oklahoma between the time WWII ended and when he could be mustered out, which happened in Tucson.

After attending Electronic Radio Television Institute at Omaha, Nebraska, Howard settled in Tucson and began a career in radio and TV. He was Tucson’s very first TV cameraman when Channel 13 came on the air. His professional years were spent as a Broadcast Engineer, and he retired from KUAT-TV in 2001.

For several years Howard didn’t have much time for music, but then he joined the newly-formed Beaver’s (Tucson Concert) Band and played tenor sax for the next 40 years. In the 1970's he played in a dance band that he and trumpet player Charlie Kline “inherited,” which became the Kline-Smith Band. Eventually he took up his guitar again, laying down solid rhythm and distinctive solos as a founding member of The Fairer Sax.

Howard has been a member of The Rhythm Gang since the mid 1980's, and has been with Retro Swing 7 since its founding. He also plays guitar and tenor with The Bouncing Czechs, and furnishes the rhythm section for a violin trio called Sweetheart and Her Pals. Each March, Howard does some fancy pickin’ on rhythm-and-lead guitar with an unnamed country band in a private, Vegas-type revue. Howard’s tastes in music are wide, and his idols include Chet Atkins, Charlie Christian, BB King, Les Paul, and Carlos Santana.