Steps
Ahead
Steps Ahead is a legendary band that
has included amazing jazz virtuosos. Steve Smith
has contributed greatly to their tight,
energetic sound for seven years (1986-1993 and
again from 2005-present).
Here is some
information about the band...
Steps Ahead
(originally known as Steps) is a jazz fusion
group and the brainchild of vibraphonist
Mike Mainieri. According to the liner notes of
the group's 1983 debut album (for worldwide
release), entitled Steps Ahead, "Steps
began as a part-time venture in 1979 at Seventh
Avenue South, a New York City nightclub." The
group began releasing recordings in Japan as far
back as 1980.
The first line-up of Steps
in the period 1979-1981, as can be read on the
live album Smokin' in the Pit,
consisted of Michael Brecker (tenor sax), Steve
Gadd (drums), Eddie Gomez (bass), Don Grolnick
(piano), Mike Mainieri (vibraphone), and special
guest Kazumi Watanabe (guitar). This double live
album was recorded on 15 and 16 December 1979 at
The Pit Inn Tokyo.
A second studio
recording was made on 17 December 1979, called
Step by Step. Smokin' in the Pit
was released in 1980 and awarded a gold record.
The studio album Step by Step was
released shortly after, followed in the summer
of 1980 by another live recording called
Paradox. These three albums (see Mike
Manieri's notes in the booklet of the 1999 cd
release of Smokin' in the Pit) were the
only albums released by the group under the name
of Steps. In 1982 they learned that the name
Steps had been trademarked by a band in North
Carolina, and therefore changed their name to
Steps Ahead.
The line-up for the
Steps Ahead album consisted of Mainieri,
Michael Brecker (tenor sax), Eliane Elias
(piano), Peter Erskine (drums), and Eddie Gomez
(bass).
Other group members have
included: Dennis Chambers, Warren Bernhardt,
Rachel Z, Donny McCaslin, Chuck Loeb, Victor
Bailey, Tony Levin, Bob Berg, Darryl Jones, Mike
Stern, Richard Bona, and many others.
Brecker and Mainieri are featured on the Dire
Straits album Brothers in Arms. For
rock listeners, the albums Steps Ahead
and Modern Times (1984, with Bernhardt
replacing Elias in the main line-up, and other
guest musicians appearing in limited roles) are
a great bridge into a kind of jazz that is
energetic and powerful. Reflecting the
cooperative, ensemble nature of the band, the
Modern Times album included
compositions by Mainieri, Brecker, Erskine, and
Bernhardt.
Steve Smith continues to join
the group periodically and is scheduled to
perform live with Steps Ahead in 2013. Keep an
eye on the tour page
for information as it is released.
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