PAT SMYTHE

Pat Smythe biography
Patrick Mungo "Pat" Smythe was a Scottish pianist who was at the forefront of multiple innovative developments in British jazz during the 1960s and 1970s. Born in Edinburgh in 1923 and expected to follow in his father's footsteps as a lawyer, Smythe instead opted to move to London in the late 1950s to seek a professional career in music. There, he first made a name for himself as pianist in the ground-breaking free jazz quintet of Jamaican saxophonist Joe Harriott. After the quintet fell apart in 1965, Smythe continued collaborating with Harriott as a member of John Mayer's Indo-Jazz Fusions, adding elements of rock and Hindustani music into the British jazz vocabulary. Smythe's admirable resume was further expanded in the 1970s through sharing the stage with Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Allan Holdsworth, Carol Kidd and many others.

Despite his tenure, Smythe made few recordings as a band leader and none were released before his untimely death at the age of 60 in 1983. In 2012, Jazzhus Disk released two live recordings of Smythe's piano trio and in 2024, the British Progressive Jazz label released a full-length electric, guitar-heavy live set recorded in 1973 with Holdsworth, Atlantic Bridge bassist Daryl Runswick and Soft Machine drummer John Marshall, ensuring him of a noteworthy spot in the history of British jazz fusion.