Discogs PWA

Ronald L. Smith

Ronald Louis Smith (April 12, 1952 – January 21, 2012) is the original kc and the sunshine band trumpet player and the leader of the horn section and choreographer. He created all the dance moves the band was famous for. The sunshine band was formily called the ocean liner band. Ronald Louis smith wrote/produced the hit disco record "spank" artist jimmy Bo horn . He arranged and played the trumpet parts in the big reggae record "buffalo soldjar" by artist bob marley, and lets dance to the drummers beat by Herman kelly. Ronald Louis smith also work with Gloria Estefan and the Miami sound at Miami sound studio. Ronnie Smith, a Miami horn player who spent five booty-shaking years with K.C. and the Sunshine Band, then wrote Jimmie “Bo’’ Horne’s 1978 disco smash, Spank, has died at age 59. Born April 12, 1952, Ronald Louis Smith, helped define the upbeat, splashy “Miami Sound’’ that made stars of the Sunshine Band, Gloria Estefan and others with whom he played. He started on a trumpet that his father salvaged from the trash, and became a drum major, “doing the funky chicken,’’ at both Edison and Jackson Senior high schools, said his son, Ron Jr. With his guitarist brother, Jerome, and friend Robert Johnson, Smith founded the Ocean Liner Band, for a time the show band for another Miami star, Betty Wright. Influenced by their Bahamian musical roots, the brothers played behind dozens of artists at Miami’s T.K. Records studio. All three became original members of the Sunshine Band: a disco/funk supergroup during much of the 1970s and ’80s that toured worldwide. “My dad was a humble man,’’ Ron Jr. said. “He said that the limelight was not about him. He always wanted to make the people love the music. You hear the horn section dancing — that’s entertainment.’’ Smith made one, little-noticed solo album, “Party Freaks (Come On)’’ for Miami’s Sunshine Sounds in 1978, backed by the Sunshine Band. “K.C.’’— Harry Casey — wrote the liner notes. A U.S. Air Force veteran who lived in Miami Lakes, Smith had been a patient at the Veterans Administration Medical Center since a violent carjacking near the Liberty Square housing projects left him comatose in 2004, though his son said he responded to music, and once was able to say “I love you.’’ He died Jan. 21. No arrest was ever made. His brother also met a sad end. Jerome Smith, 47, died in a West Palm Beach construction accident in 2000. In a 1998 interview posted on YouTube, “Bo’’ Horne said Smith was “the most exciting member of the Sunshine band and a pioneer of that group. Ron could play all those high octaves. When the Sunshine Band first came out, Ron Louis Smith put together a horn section that just blew you away... The Ocean Liners were the hottest band in Miami, and K.C. asked for the privilege to be a part of that group, because he loved soul music.’’ The band morphed into the Sunshine Junkanoo Band before settling on its final name at T.K. Records, Horne said. “I believe it was done that way because of segregation. During that time, a white guy in front of an all-black band was something that white radio would buy.’’ The Sunshine Band website notes Smith’s passing, although Casey and Smith parted on less-than-cordial terms, Ron Jr. said. But the band’s co-founder, producer/arranger Richard Finch, in an email called Smith “an amazing musician. The contributions he made as an integral part of K.C. and the Sunshine Band are permanently etched in the music. No one could ever replicate what he brought to the band. Ron was the life of the horn section and did all of the choreography for the band. He was pure positive energy and he delivered that in every performance.’’ In addition to his son, Smith is survived by daughter Ronsh’ka Latara Smith, and his wife, Beverly Fountain Smith, a Miami-Dade teacher. Smith was buried with military honors at the South Florida National Cemetery in Lake Worth. Friends are conducting an online fundraiser to cover his final expenses, at www.gofundme.com/eebfs.

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Ronald L. Smith

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