Geoffrey Smith

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Geoffrey Smith (1943, Michigan — ) is a radio presenter, author and former jazz percussionist currently working in the UK. Smith is the regular host of BBC Radio 3's Jazz Record Requests and also hosts other programmes on the network.

Smith's active jazz career ended in 1969, discouraged by the rise of rock music. In 1973 he came to Britain to complete a PhD, where he began a new career as a freelance journalist and lecturer, contributing articles and reviews to Country Life, New Society and The Spectator among others. He is still a regular contributor to Country Life and The Economist, for whom he writes on music and other cultural subjects.

His first book, published in 1983, was a survey of The Savoy Opera. His biography of Stéphane Grappelli followed in 1987. In 1988 he adapted the Grappelli book into a series for BBC Radio 3, the first of his many broadcasts for the network. In 1991, on the death of Peter Clayton, he became the regular presenter of Jazz Record Requests.