Carnival of Soul

One night in early 1977, Barry Smith was 23 and a rock musician who walked into a nightclub near San Antonio International Airport and made a connection that would change his life.

“His first words to me were, ‘Hey chief,’” Hector Saldaña recalled about that night at The Warehouse Club. Saldaña, then 19, had started a band with his brother called The Krayolas. Smith liked what he heard and a few months later became the band’s bassist.

He found success playing with bands in Houston, New Orleans and San Antonio throughout the 1970s and 1980s before settling on a career in the oil industry, where his father had worked. But Smith’s creative and musical talents never subsided.

Before he died from a brief illness on Aug. 22 at age 65, Smith had been working on a couple of musicals he had written about his travels to Africa and about Captain Beefheart, a popular rock artist who retired in 1982.

The middle child of three boys, Smith grew up in Oklahoma, Colorado, Louisiana and Texas as the family moved around for his father’s job.

“He gave me my primary education in rock and roll when I was a very little boy,” said Smith’s younger brother Jeff Smith. “We continued to share that throughout our lives, talking about music and pop culture.”

Barry Smith started bands as a teen. When he was in high school in Houston, he formed The Satellites with a classmate. The Satellites enjoyed a residency in New Orleans at a club on Bourbon Street. Smith also played with Vince Vance and the Valiants, a group from New Orleans.

Then, Smith relocated to San Antonio and met Saldaña.

During his decade with The Krayolas, Smith — or as he was called by his stage name, Jett Bass — became known for his spontaneity, on the stage and when writing songs. The crew enjoyed success, selling records and touring along the East Coast and throughout Texas.

During performances, Smith liked to jump off the stage or climb up on balconies while belting the lyrics to songs he’d written, like “Roadrunner.”

While on the road in Corpus Christi, The Krayolas once made a stop at a Chinese restaurant. Smith claimed a familiarity with Chinese food and then drenched his egg roll with the table’s volcanically spicy mustard and took a bite.

“I can still see his face — his eyeballs red, him sputtering,” Saldaña said.

After many years as a musician, Smith settled into a career as a petroleum engineer. He married and the couple had a son, Matthew, “the most important thing in his life to him,” Jeff Smith said.

Last month, the father-and-son pair took a trip to South Padre Island to go swimming and fishing and enjoy each other’s company.

Music and performing remained a big part of Smith’s life, and last fall, he reunited with Saldaña and Saldaña’s brother, David, to play as The Krayolas one more time.

The group, gathered in Smith’s home studio, re-lived their glory years playing their classic hits and coming up with new arrangements to old songs. They ended the jam session with a Jett Bass original, “Three Girls Flying in from Mexico City.”

“It’s the end of an era, with regard to that chapter of The Krayolas,” Saldaña said.

When he wasn’t spending time with his son, talking to his brother about music or pop culture, or working, Smith wrote musicals. He dreamed of seeing them performed on Broadway one day.

A few years ago, Smith acquired the rights to adapt Captain Beefheart’s music to the stage and was able to achieve one of his goals: He traveled to New York to watch actors rehearse his play.

For Jeff Smith, 55, his older brother was more of an uncle growing up because of their 10-year age difference.

“He was a great guy who was always my biggest supporter,” he said. “I’m going to miss him a hell of a lot.”

ashley.mcbride@express-news.net | @Ashleynmcb