Ches Smith

Biography

Percussionist, drummer, and composer Ches Smith is really a forward-thinking, genre-bending musician having a bent toward experimental and avant-garde improvisation. Created in NORTH PARK, Smith was raised within the Sacramento region, where he became thinking about music in his teenagers, playing with a number of punk, metallic, and avant-garde jazz organizations. After senior high school, he went to the University or college of Oregon, where he analyzed beliefs before relocating to SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA within the middle-’90s. Once within the Bay Region, Smith spent many years playing in rings and learning privately with percussionist Peter Magadini before searching for the graduate system at Mills University in Oakland. While at Mills, he analyzed percussion, improvisation, and structure beneath the tutelage of such luminaries as William Winant, Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros, and Alvin Curran. It had been during this time period that Smith got his 1st big break, subbing for Winant because the touring drummer for Mr. Bungle, a link that also resulted in his becoming a member of Mr. Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant. Since departing Mills, Smith is rolling out into an in-demand collaborator and sideman, splitting his time taken between performances with sound rock functions like Xiu Xiu and Key Chiefs 3 in addition to using cutting-edge music artists like Ben Goldberg, Annie Gosfield, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Wadada Leo Smith, John Tchicai, among others. As a single artist, Smith produced his debut with Congs for Brums in 2006, accompanied by Finally From My Hands along with his group These Arches this year 2010. 2 yrs later, he shipped the single percussion and consumer electronics recording Psycho Predictions, performed on Berne’s Snakeoil for ECM (his third day with this music group) and Darius Jones’ Publication of Mae’Bul: A different type of Sunrise from AUM Fidelity. 2013 demonstrated a prolific yr for Smith like a sideman. He performed on recordings by Marc Ribot, Mary Halvorson, Matt Mitchell and Berne, in addition to Key Chiefs 3’s Publication of Souls: Folio A. This music group issued Ishraqiyun the next year in addition to Ches Smith’s These Arches’ launch, International Hookah. 2015 discovered the drummer functioning once again on recordings by with Berne, Jones and Halvorson. Smith produced his label debut being a head on ECM using the trio time The Bell in January of 2016. His sidemen had been pianist Craig Taborn and violist Mat Maneri.

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