Larry Smith And Christine Cordone “To Be A Musician You Don’t Have To Pass A Bar Exam”

 

By Ralph DePalma

 

Musical couple Larry Smith and his wife, Christine Cordone, come from upstate New York and spent many years in Woodstock area. Originally a schoolteacher, Larry instinctively nurtures others and helps promote them to raise the level of their performance. Music to Larry is not about self-aggrandizement, not about applause, but all about the art of making music. To Larry, the business of music and the art of making music are very different and separate. He loves to help everyone make music. Larry considers himself to be very spiritual. He worships the gods of music.

 

 

Larry prefers uniqueness, inventiveness and self expression, it’s probably why he loves jazz. According to Larry and many other Key West musicians, jazz was more prevalent in Key West years ago in clubs like Captain Hornblower’s, Cafe Exile, upstairs in the La Concha, La Te Da, and the Pier House, which all featured jazz in the 1980’s. 

 

 

The Sunday Jazz Showcase at the Pier House was Larry’s most famous gig for 19 years.  The Showcase was set up to debut amateurs and feature professionals. The Pier House Wine Galley was a true music room where the audience celebrated the music as much as the musicians.  Improvisation was the rule.  Lady’s Night at the Pier House was special and Larry would book two women with very different styles.

 

 

Once in a while on Jazz Night at the Pier House the magic and the music would take over. That’s when communication between the musicians is very special and unique. It is hard to explain it just happens and elevates the musicians spirit, then the music actually takes over the performance.  Larry has a gift: he can lead and follow at the same time.  Sometimes it’s a look or a simple note and a fellow musician just knows to go for it because “I got you covered.”

 

 

Larry does not consider himself a vocalist. He leaves that title to his wife, Christine Cordone, who listened to early folk singers and was influenced by many of the 1970’s artists.  She attended college at State University in Oneonta, New York, obtained a teaching degree, and started performing at coffee houses near the college. Christine also obtained a Masters Degree in Education at New Paltz State University also in New York. Soon Christine started enjoying music more than education.  She began to write her own music  joined a trio in Atlanta in the mid 1970’s.  She returned to the Adirondacks, to Glover, and met Larry in Mayfield, New York.  The two began to eat, sleep, and live music together.  They moved to Woodstock in 1978 because the town had a dozen places that booked bands that played original music. The couple honed their art for the next dozen years.

 

 

Once in a while, in between gigs, Christine worked on a beautiful old wooden gambling boat called the Atlantic X boat.  She would entertain for the first hour on the cruise out then when far enough off shore the casino would open and the boat would cruise around in a figure 8 pattern.  After three or four hours of gambling, the ship would return and Christine would entertain on the way back.  One night, while the boat was returning in heavy seas, Christine and her equipment keeled over in slow motion and ended up all over the floor. It was her last gig on the Atlantic X.

 

 

Besides her vocal career and education, Christine is an accomplished painter. Her watercolors are widely displayed in galleries and private collections.

 

 

Larry and Christine have collaborated on numerous projects and albums and regularly perform together. They are Key West’s premier musical couple. Their album of all original music, Key West Island Nights was released at a party at the La Concha Hotel, with twenty children from the Bahama Village Music Program performing. Larry will be releasing an new CD of original music this summer that he has been working on for years. He is writing music for a play to honor the 100th Anniversary of the Key West Women’s Club. In his spare time he is collaborating on a music project with a former colleague in Woodstock. Don’t miss Larry’s Concert at The Studios of Key West Friday, May 1st.

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