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| Willie "The Lion" Smith |
 They called the early jazz pianists "ticklers," and William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholoff Smith—a.k.a. “the Lion”—was a tickler’s tickler. He was also a composer of over one hundred songs, a captivating showman (“a keyboard gladiator,” according to Duke Ellington), a decorated war hero, and a cantor in a Harlem synagogue. With his trademark derby, a smoldering cigar and an icy stare, he had a knack for flustering rival pianists, but he was also a beloved mentor to three generations of jazz musicians. Raised in turn-of-the-century Newark and shaped by its diverse ethnic and cultural influences, he went on to become a legendary figure in Harlem in the1920s and ‘30s, where he created a new jazz idiom—stride. Narrated by actor Joe Morton, Willie the Lion uses rare performance clips and stills, reminiscences by Duke Ellington and James P. Johnson, and on-camera interviews with Artie Shaw, Dr. Billy Taylor, Amiri Baraka, and pianists Dick Hyman and Mike Lipskin, who demonstrate the essential elements |
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