Weekend celebration honors local musician Paul Smoker

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — A three-day celebration of local musician and educator Paul Smoker starts this weekend.

Friday and Saturday shows will be at Lovin’ Cup in Henrietta.

Smoker was born in Muncie, Indiana, but moved to Rochester with his wife and became the jazz director at Nazareth from 2001 until his death in 2016.

Smoker was beloved as an excellent but tough educator in Rochester and the Midwest, and as an innovator. Artists remember him as blending jazz, classical, and European free jazz with a powerful sound.

The event is produced by one of his students and colleagues, and Bop Shop Records.

“He came and we clicked immediately, and he started performing at the store on a regular basis,” Bop Shop Owner Tom Kohn said. “He was an integral part of where I went and how I presented the music I have been for the past 36 years.”

“Paul took big band high chops and virtuosity, and then he combined it with small group interplay and this whole new music avant garde classical European style, and of course, he was really the first to do that,” drummer Phil Haynes said.

Tickets are available through this link . The weekend will close with a free and open jam session at Bop Shop Records Sunday starting at 1:00 p.m.

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