Counterparts - Steve Smith - June 28th 2022

http://www.vitalinformation.com/

Steve Smith's drumming, while decidedly modern, can best be described as a style that embodies the history of U.S. music. Steve is active as a band leader (Steve Smith and Vital Information) as a featured sideman (Mike Stern Group, Zakir Hussain’s Masters of Percussion, Steps Ahead, Hiromi-The Trio Project) and as an educator/clinician.

Steve Smith grew up in the Boston area and started playing drums at the age of nine in 1963. He studied music at the Berklee College of Music from 1972 to 1976 with Alan Dawson and Gary Chaffee as his private instructors. Over the past 45 years he has toured and recorded with some of the biggest names in jazz and rock - appearing on recordings that have sold over 100 million copies worldwide - including Journey, Bryan Adams, Mariah Carey, Zucchero and Jean-Luc Ponty. Other notable jazz artists Smith has played with include Zakir Hussain, Buddy DeFranco, Benny Golson, Ahmad Jamal, Dave Liebman, Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, Bill Evans and Hiromi.

Smith produced and played on a series of sixteen jazz albums for the Tone Center label featuring players such as Frank Gambale, Stu Hamm, Oteil Burbridge, Larry Coryell, Jerry Goodman, Howard Levy, Steve Marcus, Scott Henderson and Victor Wooten. His release The Best Of Steve Smith – The Tone Center Collection is a sample of some of his favorite tracks from those collaborations.

Smith is currently touring with his own all-star band Vital Information featuring Manuel Valera (keyboards) and Janek Gwizdala (bass). The lastest Vital Information release is titled Heart Of The City. Vital Information is approaching its 40th Anniversary, as the first Vital Information album was released in 1983. Wounded Bird Records is starting the celebration with the 2022 release of The Complete Columbia Recordings, a four CD set of the first four Vital Information albums. From 2016-2019 Steve Smith toured with the iconic rock band Journey, the group in which he recorded nine albums with massive hits. In 2017 Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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