Floyd Smith

Who was Floyd Smith?

Floyd Smith was a Black American jazz guitarist.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Smith studied music theory as a teenager and learned ukelele as a child before taking up guitar. He spent his early career in territory bands, playing in groups such as the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra, the Sunset Royal Orchestra, Eddie Johnson's Crackerjacks, Andy Kirk's band, and the Brown Skin Models. His 1939 Floyd's Guitar Blues lap steel guitar instrumental with Andy Kirk and the 12 Clouds of Joy's was the first ever electric guitar hit record. He enlisted during World War II and following the war led his own small ensembles in soul jazz and straight-ahead settings. He played with Bill Doggett early in the 1960s and then with Hank Marr and Wild Bill Davis.

In the 1970s Smith moved into record production, founding a label in Chicago. Among those he produced was disco star Loleatta Holloway;supposedly, though not confirmed, he married Holloway later in the decade.

Smith died in Indianapolis, Indiana in March 1982, at the age of 65.