-"The Latin from Manhattan."
The "Tico-Tico" lady.
+"The Latin from Manhattan." -
The "Tico-Tico" lady.
-Liner notes from '''Ethel Smith: Souvenir Album: Organ Solos with the Bando Carioca'''.
Decca DLP 5016, Copyright 1949:
+Liner notes from:
+
'''Ethel Smith: Souvenir Album: Organ Solos with the Bando Carioca'''.
+
Decca DLP 5016, Copyright 1949:
;: You couldn't call Ethel Smith a "Latin from Manhattan," because she's originally from Pittsburgh. But if she ''had'' decided to be born on Father Knickerbocker's island, the phrase would have fitted her perfectly --- for Ethel has been in love with Latin America and its music since she was ten. Her most ardent childhood desire was some day to go south of the equator. Not only did she realize that wish before she was twenty-three, but she also became ''the'' foremost exponent of Latin rhythms on the electric organ.
;: But let's go back to the beginning --- back to Pittsburgh, for it was here that Ethel received much of her sound musical background at Carnegie Tech. Institute where she studied piano, organ and, incidentally, Spanish. After graduation, she got a job playing in the pit for a Shubert show. It was her first taste of commercial musical life and she liked it well enough to tour with the company for twenty-eight weeks.
