Lynn Oliver Studios.. the beginning

[Ken Smith]

This is where I started (http://birdlandranch.org/Oliver%20Pictures/index.htm) (check out all the pics) in late 1968 while still in High School, The Lynn Oliver (http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/27/nyregion/lynn-oliver-leader-of-jazz-orchestras-and-educator-68.html) Studios.

I played all the great charts in the Big Band Workshop there which I can now say with great confidence that was my most important training in musicianship.

I won my audition with Horace Silver there and did a demo recording with Abbey Lincoln with Wayne Shorter as arranger and handed me my part. I sat in with Mongo Santamaria there who later hired me briefly and also met and sat in with Sonny Rollins. I even did a Big Band job with Lynn Oliver on Drums at my side. All of this happened while I was still a teenager. Talk about opportunities!

Horace Silver w/ Lynn Oliver; http://birdlandranch.org/Oliver%20Pictures/images/OliverStudios10.jpg
Paul Chambers; http://birdlandranch.org/Oliver%20Pictures/images/OliverStudios67.jpg
Richard Davis; http://birdlandranch.org/Oliver%20Pictures/images/OliverStudios66.jpg
Bob Cranshaw w/Duke Pearson; http://birdlandranch.org/Oliver%20Pictures/images/OliverStudios48.jpg

[Anselm Hauke]

great pictures ken, thanks for showing

[Tim Bishop]

Wow, very cool!

[Nathan Parker]

Yeah, Ken, that is great. It's always very enjoyable for me to see the history of our music like that. Especially since I missed most of it by not being born yet.