Freeport concert honors composer Hale Smith

Hale Smith, one of the most influential black composers of the 20th century, lived in Freeport for nearly five decades and still there are residents of the South Shore village who don't recognize his name.

The South Nassau Unitarian Universalist Congregation wants to make Smith a household name in his longtime home, and Sunday held its third annual Hale Smith Day concert as part of its Black History Month celebration.

Smith, who died in 2009 at 84 after complications from a stroke, was a jazz and classical pianist, composer and teacher who moved to Freeport in 1961 after honing his craft in Cleveland nightclubs and opera houses. His body of work, while deep in influence and critical praise, is often overlooked, said Jay Anthony Gach, a member of the church's board of trustees.

"This exposes it," Gach said of the event, which was free and attracted about 150 people. "We are bringing some of his music to the fore."

Smith's widow, Juanita Smith, 85, of Freeport, said the event -- which included renditions of her husband's songs as well as dancing and an appearance by Freeport Mayor Andrew Hardwick -- was a fitting tribute.

"He operated under the radar," said Smith, adding that her husband's work is often sampled by the "hip-hoppers" of today.

Smith moved to New York in 1958 to work as an editor and consultant at music publishing houses. He previously earned a master's degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and spent his career composing music for film, radio, television and theater.

He taught at the Long Island University C.W. Post Campus and the University of Connecticut, and won accolades such as membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1988 and the Cleveland Arts Prize in 1973.

A compilation of his work, "Music of Hale Smith," was released in 2000.

At Sunday's Freeport event, Tara Nova of Jamaica, Queens, performed a hip-hop rendition of Smith's "I Love Music." Nova said she hoped to reach a young audience with Smith's music.

"To add it into a rap song gives it a little more palatability for the young people," she said.

The event program included a reproduction of a 1958 letter to Hale Smith from poet Langston Hughes asking the composer to collaborate on a "poetry-to-jazz" program in Cleveland. Hughes' letter said he would "be delighted to work with so sensitive a musician as yourself at the piano."

Smith's contribution to music -- and his legacy in Freeport -- deserve that kind of praise today, Hardwick said.

"It's just fitting that this should be part of Black History Month," he said.