Willie "The Lion" Smith came roaring out of Harlem in the ‘20s as a key architect of the stride piano style that bridged ragtime, early jazz, blues and boogie-woogie. Accordingly, Smith maintained an equal air of authority and elan, whether he was putting across the technically demanding complexities of "Finger Buster", laying down some deep blues behind Mamie Smith on her milestone recording "Crazy Blues" or slipping into a cosmopolitan swing on "Harlem Joys". And for all his innovations, he could still reach back to his roots by re-enlivening a standard like "Alexander's Ragtime Band".