 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.
Steve Smith was voted “#1 Fusion
Drummer” in the 2012 Modern Drummer
readers poll. Smith
has previously been voted “#1 All-Around
Drummer" in the Modern Drummer Magazine
Readers Poll for five consecutive years from
1987-1991. The 2008, 2009 and 2010 Drum!
Magazine readers voted Smith #1 Jazz Drummer. In
2001 Steve was named by Modern Drummer
Magazine as one of the “Top 25 Drummers of All
Time." In 2002, he was voted into the Modern
Drummer Hall of Fame and in 2003 his Hudson
Music DVD Steve Smith Drumset Technique -
History of the U.S. Beat was voted #1
Educational DVD.” Hudson Music released Steve’s
DVD/CD Drum Legacy – Standing on the
Shoulders of Giants in 2008, which was
voted Best DVD of 2009 by the readers of
Drum! Magazine. In 2017 Steve topped an
unprecedented three categories in the Modern
Drummer poll: #1 Rock Drummer, #1 MVP and
#1 Educational Product for his Hudson Music
Book/Video Pathways Of Motion. In 2018
MD readers voted Smith #1 Classic Rock Drummer.
In 2022 Modern Drummer Magazine
published a book that includes all five of
Steve's MD cover stories, a new interview,
exclusive photos and a download of Smith's solo
drumset recording, The Fabric Of Rhythm.
Currently Smith exercises his teaching
skills by giving clinics around the world and
being part of the staff of Drum Fantasy Camp:
www.drumfantasycamp.com |
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