Serenade is a hyper vivid deep dive into the lives of 4 R&B group members who reached rapid succession during the 70s, well into the 80 and 90s. All similar but still from different walks of life, these gentlemen share in great detail their perspect...
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Jackson 'Jackie Hoot' Smith
Growing up in the south wasn't easy during the sixties. The civil rights movement was at its peak and the tension in America was evident. Segregation and overall Racism negatively impacted the lives of many black Americans, so plenty of us struggled to find a balance and find solace. Some resorted to drugs, alcohol and violence and some took a different approach. I was amongst those seeking an escape in a different way.
I was born in 1949 New Orleans to Francine and Harold Smith. My mother was a neighborhood favorite seamstress and my father owned a bookstore he inherited from his grandfather after World War two. We weren't rich but we weren't without either and for that I'm grateful. Reluctantly I had parents that were informed and empathic enough to understand and teach me that everyone doesn't live the same lives. Some kids struggle, some adults struggle.
"Sometimes it leads them down a path of destruction." My father would say. He spoke at our home church often so his lectures tended to have some hallelujah in there somewhere. "And their lives are never the same. Sometimes unfair things happen."
"Why can't we just do what's right and change the world then?" I'd often respond with innocent curiosity. It was such a simple concept to my child mind. "We can change the world, Hoot. It just has to be a group effort. No one person can do it all alone."
Hoot is a nickname my mother gave me. "When you were little, even more little than you are now, boy, you used to scream the craziest scream I ever heard!"
My mother threw her head back and let out a laugh straight from her gut. "Especially when you were hungry. I can never forget all that hootin' and hollering." That was the day I went from Jackson Eugene Smith to Jackie Hoot. When my mother discovered that I'd caught that singing bug, it all came together like a full circle. "Now I know what all that noise was about. You were just trying to sing!"
Seeing and hearing my mother be so proud of me and my gift made me want to use it all the time. I used it when I was sad, happy, I used it to swoon my mother so she'd give me ten cent to go to the store, I used it to get girls. I learned early that if I wanted an opportunity, I'd have to transact for it. Initially I didn't know how I would do that but when I discovered the gift that is music, I felt I struck gold.
My mother and father were avid church goers so naturally the same went for me. I was at church so often that at one point I considered pastoring in the future. Too bad hearing that saxophone for the first time turned my entire world upside down - in the best way of course.
It was 1968 and Sunday service had just come to an end. I was exhausted from the dancing and praising we'd done all day long and was eager to fall face first into bed. A shower would surely have to wait. My mother and father had already left for the evening and knew I'd be walking home with my best friend Ashton Tate.
