Emma Smock (4 June 1920– 13 June 1995), better known as Ginger Smock,"Hot violinist is TV Hit in Los Angeles"
'' Jet''. At Google Books. Retrieved 3 June 2013. was a

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist, orchestra leader, and local

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of 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 Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and

rhythm & blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

, she performed with the All City Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles.

Life and career

Born in Chicago, Smock, who was of

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

heritage, was orphaned at the age of 6 and grew up in Los Angeles, graduating from

Jefferson High School This is a list of memorials to Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and third president of the United States and the author of the United States Declaration of Independence. Buildings Elementary schools *Jefferson Elementary School, in Cammack Villa ...

. She studied violin privately with Bessie Dones, and at the age of 10 appeared as a soloist at the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...

. She was featured on

Clarence Muse Clarence Muse (October 14, 1889 – October 13, 1979) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, singer, and composer. He was the first African American to appear in a starring role in a major studio film, 1929's '' Hearts in Dixie''. ...

's radio program at the age of thirteen performing

Edward MacDowell Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites '' Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and ''Ne ...

's ''

To a Wild Rose "To a Wild Rose" is the first piece from '' Woodland Sketches'', Op. 51, by the American composer Edward MacDowell. It was completed in 1896 and first published by Breitkopf and Härtel. Background "To a Wild Rose", one of the European-trained ...

''. She earned degrees in music from

Los Angeles City College Los Angeles City College (LACC) is a public community college in East Hollywood, California. A part of the Los Angeles Community College District, it is located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard on the former campus of the U ...

, 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. In 1951, she led an all-female sextette, featuring

Clora Bryant Clora Larea Bryant (May 30, 1927 – August 25, 2019) was an American jazz trumpeter. She was the only female trumpeter to perform with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker and was a member of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. Early life ...

, on the ''Chicks and the Fiddle'' show hosted by Phil Moore that broadcast for six weeks on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. In 1952, she was the featured soloist on

KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship station of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is ...

's variety show, ''Dixie Showboat''. On March 31, 1953, Smock recorded as part of a group, with

Gerald Wiggins Gerald Foster Wiggins (May 12, 1922 – July 13, 2008) was an American jazz pianist and organist. Early life Wiggins was born in New York City on May 12, 1922.Vacher, Pete"Wiggins, Gerry" ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'' (2nd edition). G ...

, Freddie Simon,

Red Callender George Sylvester "Red" Callender (March 6, 1916 – March 8, 1992) was an American string bass and tuba player. He is perhaps best known as a jazz musician, but worked with an array of pop, rock and vocal acts as a member of The Wrecking Cre ...

, and Rudy Pitts, accompanying the vocalist Cecil "Count" Carter. 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 The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), colloquially known as the Blacksonian, is a Smithsonian Institution museum located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was established in 2003 an ...

Recordings

* ''Ginger Smock: Studio and Demo Recordings 1946-1958''
AB Fable
2005)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smock, Ginger 1920 births 1995 deaths American jazz violinists 20th-century American violinists American women violinists 20th-century American women musicians Musicians from Los Angeles Jazz musicians from California African-American violinists