Emmy Winning NJN Documentary on
New Jersey Jazz Legend Willie “The Lion” Smith
To be Released on DVD by Shanachie Entertainment

DVD Release Party with jazz pianists Mike Lipskin and Terry Waldo
and clips from the film at "La Belle Époque"
in NYC Friday, July 30 at 6:00 PM

STATEWIDE – Newton, New Jersey-based Shanachie Entertainment has announced the release on DVD of Willie the Lion, the award-winning jazz biography of Willie “the Lion” Smith (1894-1973), the unsung jazz master whose piano prowess, innovative compositions and colorful personality made him a legend in the jazz world. Produced by NJN Public Television in 2002 and aired on over 60 PBS stations nationwide, Willie the Lion received an Emmy for Outstanding Cultural Program, a CINE Golden Eagle and was screened at the Smithsonian National Museum of History as part of its Jazz Appreciation Month program. Willie the Lion was directed and produced by five-time Emmy winner Marc Fields, who will present clips from the program at the release party at La Belle Époque.

Narrated by actor Joe Morton, Willie the Lion features rare performance footage of Smith at the keyboard, reminiscences of Smith by Duke Ellington and James P. Johnson, performances by Eubie Blake and Dick Hyman, and interviews with Artie Shaw, Dr. Billy Taylor, and Amiri Baraka. Raised in turn-of-the-century Newark, William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholoff Smith – a.k.a. “the Lion” – became a major force on the Harlem jazz scene in the 1920s and 30s, defining the sound of the era along with piano giants like James P. Johnson and Fats Waller. In the words of his protégé Duke Ellington, "The Lion was the foundation,” “a myth that you saw come alive.”

Willie the Lion was a true American original: a composer of over one hundred songs, a captivating showman, a decorated war hero, a cantor in a Harlem synagogue, and a teacher to young musicians like Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Dr. Billy Taylor. With his trademark derby, smoldering cigar and an icy stare, he had a knack for flustering rival pianists, yet he also composed some of the most exquisite tunes in the jazz piano repertoire.

Willie the Lion follows the ups and downs of his long career: the segregated clubs of Newark and Atlantic City (where he met Eubie Blake in 1915), the influence of James Reese Europe, the battlefields of France in WW I (where Smith earned his nickname), and the Harlem clubs and rent parties where Smith and his pals James P. Johnson and Fats Waller created a new, more sophisticated piano style called “stride”. We hear about the cutting contests – including the Lion’s account of his famous showdown with Jelly Roll Morton – and how he befriended and mentored the young Duke Ellington and Artie Shaw. Throughout the program, Dick Hyman, Mike Lipskin (Smith’s student) and Dr. Billy Taylor explain what made the Lion’s music so innovative, and we see and hear the Lion perform his own compositions and jazz classics such as “St. Louis Blues,” “Carolina Shout” and “Maple Leaf Rag.”

Willie the Lion breaks new ground in its depiction of the northeast as a crucible of early jazz rivaling New Orleans and Chicago . Overturning stereotypes about early jazz men as self-taught “primitives” rooted solely in the blues, Willie the Lion presents an unjustly overlooked musical pioneer whose best compositions rank with those of Gershwin and Ellington in the jazz piano repertoire. “It all goes to prove,” said Willie the Lion, “that music does not stem from any single race, creed, or locality. It comes from a mixture of all these things. As does the Lion.”

To celebrate the DVD release of Willie the Lion, Smith's student Mike Lipskin will perform stride piano classics, with additional music provided by Eubie Blake's protégé Terry Waldo and vocalist Dinah Lee. Filmmaker Marc Fields will also be available for interviews before and after the event (contact: marcfields@mindspring.com). Review copies of the DVD will be available at the event. La Belle Époque is located at 827 Broadway between 12th and 13th Street . The phone number is (212)254-6436.

Support for the production of Willie the Lion was provided by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the EEN/CPB Program Fund.