Charles Joseph Smith, a piano virtuoso with 600 original works, finally gets his due #music #chicago

Anyone who has spent time around Chicago’s DIY music scene likely recognizes Smith as a mainstay on the dancefloor of venues like The Hideout or Cafe Mustache, where he often sells his homemade cassettes and sometimes performs his own music. But as a Black artist with autism, Smith has struggled to have his work heard beyond that ephemeral world. Now, his first widely available release, timed to align with World Autism Awareness Day, marks a major recognition of his talents. Chicago-based Sooper Records will drop Smith’s double album on April 3. It features 10 eclectic tracks on “Collected Works,” plus two iterations of his opera, “War of the Martian Ghosts.” The label will also make Smith’s self-published autobiography, “The 88 Keys that Opened Doors,” widely available for the first time. Together, the package aims to give Smith his flowers, which many in Chicago’s scrappy, underground music world say is overdue. That scene has provided Smith refuge, he said, to be among “people doing strange things, performance art, strange music, strange vibe and free-form dancing.” Story and audio feature by Courtney Kueppers. Read the full story at WBEZ.org.