Russell Taylor "Pops" Smith (February 5, 1890 – March 27, 1966)[1] was an American jazz trumpeter.
[1] Smith learned alto horn as a child, and switched to trumpet when he was fourteen years old.
[2] In the late 1910s and early 1920s he found work playing stage revues and in military bands.
[1] During that time, he also played in the Blackbirds of 1928 revue and, in the mid-1930s, with Horace Henderson, Benny Carter, and Claude Hopkins.
[2] From 1941 to 1946, he played in Cab Calloway's group, then worked with Noble Sissle toward the end of the 1940s.