Ginger Smock
{{Short description|American violinist, orchestra leader, and TV personality}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Ginger Smock
| image = Ginger Smock's violin, at the Smithsonian.jpg
| image_upright =
| image_size = 100px
| landscape =
| alt =
| caption = Ginger Smock's violin, at the Smithsonian
| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| birth_name = Emma Smock
| alias =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1920|06|04|df=y}}
| birth_place =
| origin = Los Angeles, California, United States
| death_date = {{death date and age|1995|06|13|1920|06|04|df=y}}
| death_place =
| genre = Jazz
| occupation = Violinist
| instrument = Violin
| years_active =
| label =
| associated_acts = Vivien Garry
| website =
}}
Emma Smock (4 June 1920[https://books.google.com/books?id=GUcUAQAAIAAJ&q=violin+Smock+jazz Cox, Bette Yarbrough (1996) Central Avenue - its rise and fall, 1890-c. 1955: including the musical renaissance of Black Los Angeles. BEEM Publications] At Google Books. Retrieved 3 June 2013.– 13 June 1995), better known as Ginger Smock,[https://books.google.com/books?id=KkMDAAAAMBAJ&dq=Emma+Ginger+Smock&pg=PA62 "Hot violinist is TV Hit in Los Angeles"] Jet. At Google Books. Retrieved 3 June 2013.[https://books.google.com/books?id=5b8DAAAAMBAJ&dq=Emma+Ginger+Smock&pg=PA64 "New York Beat"] Jet. At Google Books. Retrieved 3 June 2013. was a violinist, orchestra leader, and local Los Angeles television personality. She is perhaps best known from her recordings with the Vivien Garry Quintet, though other recordings have surfaced recently. In addition to her work in jazz and rhythm & blues, she performed with the All City Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles.{{cite web|url=https://music.si.edu/story/woman-violin-ginger-smock-and-los-angeles-jazz-scene|title=The Woman with the Violin: Ginger Smock and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene|author=Lewis, Steven|date=June 2017|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|website=si.edu}}
Life and career
Born in Chicago, Smock, who was of African American heritage, was orphaned at the age of 6 and grew up in Los Angeles, graduating from Jefferson High School.{{Cite Grove |author=Anthony Barnett|title=Smock (Shipp), Ginger [née Smock, Emma; Colbert, Emma S(mock); Shipp, Emma]|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.J696500|date=2003}}https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/woman-violin She studied violin privately with Bessie Dones, and at the age of 10 appeared as a soloist at the Hollywood Bowl. She was featured on Clarence Muse's radio program at the age of thirteen performing Edward MacDowell's To a Wild Rose. She earned degrees in music from Los Angeles City College, and the Zoellner Conservatory of Music. At the latter institution she was a pupil of Edith Smith.
During 1944 she was leading a trio, with Nina Russell and Mata Roy.[https://books.google.com/books?id=bQwEAAAAMBAJ&dq=Ginger+Smock&pg=PT2 "Reviews: Nina, Mata and Ginger"] Billboard. At Google Books. Retrieved 3 June 2013. In 1951, she led an all-female sextette, featuring Clora Bryant,[https://books.google.com/books?id=aQ_cjiR63yEC&dq=violin+Smock+jazz&pg=PA211 Mcgee, Kristin A. (2009) Some Liked it Hot: Jazz Women in Film and Television, 1928-1959, p. 211. Wesleyan University Press] At Google Books. Retrieved 3 June 2013. on the Chicks and the Fiddle show hosted by Phil Moore that broadcast for six weeks on CBS.[https://books.google.com/books?id=z0QFKpI6p7AC&dq=Ginger+Smock&pg=PA372 The New York Times Television Reviews 2000, p. 372. Routledge, Jun 5, 2003] At Google Books. Retrieved 3 June 2013. In 1952, she was the featured soloist on KTLA's variety show, Dixie Showboat.
On March 31, 1953, Smock recorded as part of a group, with Gerald Wiggins, Freddie Simon, Red Callender, and Rudy Pitts, accompanying the vocalist Cecil "Count" Carter.[https://books.google.com/books?id=a59HAAAAMAAJ&q=Emma+Ginger+Smock Women in Jazz: A Discography of Instrumentalists, 1913-1968. Greenwood Press, 1985] At Google Books. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, she spent ten years as concertmaster of show orchestras in Las Vegas.
A violin owned by Smock is in the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.{{cite web|url=https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/collection/Ginger-Smock|title=The Woman with the Violin|date=25 September 2018|publisher=|accessdate=30 November 2018}}
Recordings
- Ginger Smock: Studio and Demo Recordings 1946-1958 ([http://www.abar.net AB Fable], 2005)
References
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Category:American jazz violinists
Category:20th-century American violinists
Category:American women violinists
Category:20th-century American women musicians
Category:Musicians from Los Angeles