Troy, Alabama about 1910

He spent his youth in Birmingham, Alabama, and he was largely self-taught on the piano. In his teenage years he begun to travel as a vaudeville artist, working with touring tent shows and in small theaters as a dancer, comedian actor, singer and pianist. In the 1920s he first moved to Pittsburgh where he linked up with Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey.

In the mid 1920s Smith married Sarah Horton and soon their son was born. Fortunately he got the attention of Charles 'Cow Cow' Davenport how had the advantage of good connections to the recording industry. To do his first records Smith moved with his family to Chicago in 1928 where he with his family, Albert Ammons and Meade 'Lux' Lewis roomed there in the same house for a time. Then in December 1928 he recorded his tune Pine Top's Boogie Woogie and some others.

Over night this song got a breakthrough hit that helped to establish the term boogie-woogie as the name and descriptor of this kind of piano music. Although the term boogie was probably used at first in the mid of the 1910s it was Clarence Smith who used it first in conjunction with this piano style in his well known track Pine Top's Boogie Woogie. Where it came from is not quite clear. In addition Smith was one of the earliest pianists who recorded this piano style. Already in mid January of 1929 he was engaged again to record some of his other pieces like I’m Sober Now and Jump Steady Roll. He was soon playing in Chicago hot-spots and had a promising future but on March 15, 1929 Smith was accidentally shot to death in a dancehall in Chicago. No photographs of Smith are known to exist.
Smith was a key influence for generations of boogie pianists and bands. Until today many of them covered his Pine Top's Boogie Woogie: Albert Ammons, Cleo Brown, Little Brother Montgomery, Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and many others. Clarence Smith is inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame since 1991.

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