Vital Thoughts
by Steve Smith

Greetings!

Our annual Vital Information Midwest/East Coast tour is approaching. We start in St. Cloud, MN on March 28 and conclude on April 14 in Schenectady, NY. Click here to view the touring pages of the Vital Information web site for all of the tour dates...and come out to see the group!

We’ve been able to keep the same line-up for quite a few years now - mainly because we have so much fun playing together. For the U.S. tour, the band lineup will include: Tom Coster (keyboards), Baron Browne (bass), Frank Gambale (guitar), and me.

After the U.S. tour, we have a couple of dates in South America. Frank isn’t available for those dates, so Vinny Valentino will be playing with us for those dates. Vinny did a fabulous jon on our 2004 European tour. Frank will rejoin us for some dates in Mexico and then our Summer tour, which we are currently booking.

Vic Firth has recently released my new “Tala Wands.” They are a “bundle” type stick that I developed in partnership with Dave Rundle. Click here for some insight into this new product and check them out your local drum shop or music store.

The biggest blizzard in the history of NYC occurred on February 12, 2006, the date that was planned for the Steve Marcus memorial show, so we had to postpone the event.

Steve Marcus, the tenor player with Buddy Rich's band for more than 12 years, died in September of last year. Over the last decade, I’ve played many gigs with him in Buddy’s Buddies and Count’s Jam Band.

Steve made a valuable contribution to my Hudson DVD by performing in the History of the U.S. Beat segment. We all miss him very much and will honor his life at St. Peters in NYC on Sunday, May 28th. See the website for the exact time and location.

Check my tour page for gigs with Buddy’s Buddies, Summit, and all of my upcoming clinics.

My timeline has been updated for 2005, and there is some info about the newest recording by Dave Wilczewski, the original sax player in Vital Information. Click here to learn more.

Take care and see you on the road!

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