Breaking News:Jubu Smith Announced Date Of Retirement Due To….
For 41 of his 45 years, John “Jubu” Smith has been a sideman; he started out in his father’s gospel quartet in Oakland as a harmony vocalist, then played bass and later guitar. At the age of 19, he started playing guitar for the Oakland R&B band Tony Toni Toné, whose front man, Raphael Saadiq, he had known since both were young musicians on the local quartet circuit.
Smith toured with Whitney Houston for a year and a half after ten years with the Tonies. He has been traveling the world with Maze, including Frankie Beverly, for eight months out of the year, mostly on weekends, for the past fifteen years. Numerous recording sessions with artists including Luther Vandross, Mary J. Blige, Boyz II Men, Toni Braxton, George Duke, and George Benson are not included in those credits.
Jubu, who relocated to Atlanta with his spouse and three kids from Los Angeles two years ago, is making a name for himself as the lead singer of his own soul-blues group, Legally Blynd, a sextet that also features Stevie Wonder and Saadiq’s sidemen Eric “Pik Funk” Smith, Jubu’s brother and Rihanna’s bassist for the previous eight years. Although he has recorded during the past year with K. Michelle and Eric Benet, he has drastically reduced the number of sessions he does.
