Gordon ""Ches"" Smith / We All Break
Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant Recipient
Recipient Information
Location
Brooklyn, New York
Year of Award
2021
Grant or Fellowship
Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant
Grant Amount
$33,030
About the Project
"We All Break" ensemble is an exploration for Smith's continued immersion in the tanbou (Haitian traditional drum). Project will expand the band's palette of drumming and strengthen vocal work inspired by Port-au-Prince style drumming. Three intensive workshops with drum master will take place in Newport News, VA and Brooklyn.
Residency Location
New York, NY; Yorktown, VA
About the Artist
Called ""One of the wiliest drummers on the experimental scene"" by the New York Times, and ""a perennial figure of the new-jazz scene"" by the New Yorker, Ches Smith is a percussionist, composer and bandleader. He has nine records to his name in a variety of projects at the intersection of composition and improvisation, including We All Break, which melds Haitian Vodou with jazz traditions; a quartet featuring the interpretations of Craig Taborn, Mat Maneri and Bill Frisell; Congs for Brums, his electronics-laden solo percussion project; and These Arches, his skronk-improv quintet featuring Mary Halvorson Tim Berne, Tony Malaby and Andrea Parkins.
Smith is in-demand as a drummer and percussionist in a variety of contexts from straight-ahead jazz, to new music, to heavy rock, with Mary Halvorson, Marc Ribot, Vijay Iyer, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Dave Douglas, Darius Jones, Kris Davis, Matt Mitchell, Dave Holland, Jandek, Secret Chiefs 3, and Terry Riley. He has also performed with John Tchicai, Lee Konitz, Mr. Bungle, Lou Harrison, Jose Maceda, Wadada Leo Smith, Roscoe Mitchell, and Iggy Pop.
Since 2004, Smith has been keeping a performance schedule of over 150 gigs per year, appearing at most venues and festivals that feature jazz, creative, experimental, and rock musics worldwide. According to the New Yorker: ""It’s becoming increasingly difficult to come upon a new-jazz event that doesn’t involve the drummer Ches Smith.""
Some of Ches Smith's achievements, in brief:
He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Philosophy from the University of Oregon in 1995, and holds an MFA in music performance from Mills College.
He has received three project-based grants from The Shifting Foundation.
Smith was awarded #1 Rising Star in the vibraphone category of Downbeat Magazine's Critic's Poll in 2021, and #1 Rising Star the percussion category in 2016.
He has curated numerous artist residencies at John Zorn's long-running performance space The Stone.
He has led numerous national and international tours with his own ensembles.
His name frequently appears in print in periodicals such as WSJ, Downbeat, Jazztimes, the New York Times and media outlets such as NPR and the BBC.
He is a long-time student of Haitian Vodou drums and performs in religious and folkloric contexts in New York, San Francisco and Haiti. He has published an article relating his
experience entitled ""We All Break: a Crossroads of Haitian Vodou and Creative music,"" featured in John Zorn's Arcana VII compendium.