The soulful sound of Wichita’s Smart Brothers Band has a much deserved recognition: a place in the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. The band was inducted in 2017 into the hall, established in 2004 to recognize Kansas and Kansas City Metro Area musicians’ contribution to music in Kansas and across the world.
The Smart Brothers Band was a Wichita favorite in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. While the group’s membership and name changed over the decades, they always stayed true to their soulful roots. The group was primarily composed of the Smart Brothers – there were eight of them – who played instruments and knew how to entertain an audience.
Band leader Richard “Dick” Smart says the brothers all played instruments and loved engaging the audience.
“The Smart Brothers were exciting,” Smart says. “They had a lot of showmanship, showmanship I don’t even see today.”
John and Leroy Smart were the band’s animated front line. John was known for popping handstands and back-flipping at the climatic end of a song, and for dancing while balancing his saxophone on the back of his neck. Leroy “Iron Jaw” Smart’s moves were even more unbelievable. He’d warm up with some handstands and back-flips, then jump off the stage into the splits, pick up a table or chair by his teeth and toss it aside.
In the ’60s and early ’70s, the band played weekends at their family-owned club and restaurant, called Smart’s Palace. The band was also the opening act for The Temptations and The Staple Singers when they came to Wichita to perform. Theirs was an old school, funky sound, heavy on live instruments. The band had a full-instrumental ensemble with some real funky guitar players.
Dick was the band’s bass-player and business manager and the power behind the Smarts’ soul empire, which included the band, club, restaurant, record store, and record label.
If you want to hear what the band sounds like, in 2009, they released on the famed Numero reissue label a compilation of songs by the Smart Brothers and Smart Palace-affiliated groups.
Listening to the 19-song mix gives you a real understanding of Wichita’s historical music scene.
You can hear the album on Spotify, and probably other streaming channels. Search “Eccentric Soul: Smart’s Palace.”
The Smart Brothers joined other notable African Americans with Kansas roots in the Kansas Music Hall of Fame, including Count Basie, Bobby Watson and Charlie Parker. Another early inductee into the hall was Wichita star Rudy Love.
