High School Jazz Band Clinician
2024-25
Clarence Smith
Clarence Smith is a Kansas City-based professional musician and music educator. He is coordinator/instructor of music at Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley campus, with specific expertise in jazz education, percussion, and jazz history. Smith is a frequent guest director of honors jazz ensembles and is in demand as a jazz/percussion clinician and adjudicator. He is director of the annual three-day 18th and Vine Jazz Festival and serves as the Manager for Kansas City Jazz Academy, a year-long youth jazz program sponsored by The American Jazz Museum.
As a drummer, Smith is an active participant in the Kansas City music scene where he can be heard performing in a variety of genres including jazz, classical, musical theatre, and R&B and other pop styles. He co-leads the JLove Band, a popular R&B/Jazz ensemble. A short list of national notables he’s performed with include Bobby Watson, Ahmad Alaadeen, Bill Watrous, Will Matthews and Mike Vax, among others.
Prior to his appointment at MCC, Smith taught band in the Marshall, Mo., public schools and at the Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts High School in the Kansas City, Mo. School district. His Paseo jazz bands won many regional and national jazz competitions and were invited to perform at the Smithsonian Institute and at the Kennedy Center. Some of Smith’s former students are among the new generation of acclaimed jazz musicians.
Smith is a past "High School Jazz Educator of the Year" given by Downbeat Magazine and is the first recipient of the Kansas City based Ahmad Alaadeen Award for Excellence in Music Education. In 2020 he was chosen as an Outstanding Alumnus from his alma mater and in 2023 Smith was a recipient of the NISOD Excellence Award which recognizes college educators for outstanding commitment to their students and colleagues.
Smith is a past adjunct professor of percussion for Central Methodist University in Fayette, Mo., and Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo. He holds a BME. in music education from Central Methodist University and a master's degree in arts education from Lesley University, Boston. He has earned additional graduate hours as a Fellow at Northwestern University's School of Music.
As a drummer, Smith is an active participant in the Kansas City music scene where he can be heard performing in a variety of genres including jazz, classical, musical theatre, and R&B and other pop styles. He co-leads the JLove Band, a popular R&B/Jazz ensemble. A short list of national notables he’s performed with include Bobby Watson, Ahmad Alaadeen, Bill Watrous, Will Matthews and Mike Vax, among others.
Prior to his appointment at MCC, Smith taught band in the Marshall, Mo., public schools and at the Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts High School in the Kansas City, Mo. School district. His Paseo jazz bands won many regional and national jazz competitions and were invited to perform at the Smithsonian Institute and at the Kennedy Center. Some of Smith’s former students are among the new generation of acclaimed jazz musicians.
Smith is a past "High School Jazz Educator of the Year" given by Downbeat Magazine and is the first recipient of the Kansas City based Ahmad Alaadeen Award for Excellence in Music Education. In 2020 he was chosen as an Outstanding Alumnus from his alma mater and in 2023 Smith was a recipient of the NISOD Excellence Award which recognizes college educators for outstanding commitment to their students and colleagues.
Smith is a past adjunct professor of percussion for Central Methodist University in Fayette, Mo., and Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo. He holds a BME. in music education from Central Methodist University and a master's degree in arts education from Lesley University, Boston. He has earned additional graduate hours as a Fellow at Northwestern University's School of Music.