Nate Smith (musician)

Last updated
Nate Smith
Nate Smith (214037).jpg
Smith in 2017
Background information
Birth nameIra Nathaniel Smith
Born (1974-12-14) December 14, 1974 (age 49)
Chesapeake, Virginia, United States
Instrument(s)Drums
Website www.natesmithdrums.com

Ira Nathaniel Smith (born December 14, 1974) is an American drummer, songwriter, producer, and three-time Grammy nominee. [1]

Contents

Life and career

Smith was born in Chesapeake, Virginia, and started playing drums at age 11, initially influenced by rock and funk music. At 16, he developed an interest in jazz after listening to Album of the Year by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Smith studied media art and design at James Madison University. [2] [3] While at James Madison, he performed at the Conference of the International Association for Jazz Education in Atlanta, where he met Betty Carter, who invited him to joint performances at the Blue Note in New York City. [4] Smith went to graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he met Dave Holland and joined Holland's quintet in 2003. [2] Smith appears on the albums Critical Mass (2005) and Pathways (2009). [5] In 2017, he released his first album as leader, Kinfolk: Postcards from Everywhere on Ropeadope Records. [2] [6] In 2018 Smith cowrote and performed in the self-titled, debut EP release from the Vulfpeck spin-off group 'The Fearless Flyers', later going on a US tour with the group and releasing a second such EP in 2019. [7]

Smith has composed soundtracks for broadcast documentaries on Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel. [2] [4] He co-wrote and produced the Michael Jackson song "Heaven Can Wait". [3]

Discography

As leader

As sideman

With Robin Eubanks

With Dave Holland

With Jose James

With Chris Potter

With others

Equipment

Nate endorses Zildjian cymbals, Ludwig drums, Vic firths sticks/mallets/beaters, and Evans drumheads.


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Eubanks</span> American guitarist (born 1957

Kevin Tyrone Eubanks is an American jazz and fusion guitarist and composer. He was the leader of The Tonight Show Band with host Jay Leno from 1995 to 2010. He also led the Primetime Band on the short-lived The Jay Leno Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Hunter</span> American guitarist, composer, producer and bandleader

Charlie Hunter is an American guitarist, composer, producer and bandleader. First coming to prominence in the early 1990s, Hunter plays custom-made seven- and eight-string guitars on which he simultaneously plays bass lines, chords, and melodies. Critic Sean Westergaard described Hunter's technique as "mind-boggling...he's an agile improviser with an ear for great tone, and always has excellent players alongside him in order to make great music, not to show off." Hunter's technique is rooted in the styles of jazz guitarists Joe Pass and Tuck Andress, two of his biggest influences, who blended bass notes with melody in a way that created the illusion of two guitars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurt Rosenwinkel</span> American jazz musician and bandleader

Kurt Rosenwinkel is an American jazz guitarist, composer, bandleader, producer, educator, keyboardist and record label owner.

Sandra Crouch is an American gospel music performer, drummer and songwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Potter (jazz saxophonist)</span> American jazz musician and composer

Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conrad Herwig</span> American jazz trombonist

Lee Conrad Herwig III is an American jazz trombonist from New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenny Barron</span> American jazz pianist (born 1943)

Kenny Barron is an American jazz pianist, who has appeared on hundreds of recordings as leader and sideman and is considered one of the most influential mainstream jazz pianists since the bebop era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chano Domínguez</span> Spanish jazz musician

Chano Domínguez is a Spanish Latin jazz, post bop and flamenco pianist. Dominguez has released over 20 albums as a bandleader, and collaborated extensively with other jazz artists including Paquito D’Rivera, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Joe Lovano, Chucho Valdés, Martiro, and Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, He performs his own original compositions, as well as the music of Harold Arlen, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and the Spanish classical composer Joaquín Rodrigo. He was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2012 for his album Flamenco Sketches on the Blue Note label.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julian Lage</span> American guitarist and composer (born 1987)

Julian Lage is an American guitarist and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Bernstein (guitarist)</span> American jazz guitarist

Peter Andrew Bernstein is an American jazz guitarist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Wilson (jazz musician)</span> American jazz multi-instrumentalist (born 1961)

Steve Wilson is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, who is best known in the musical community as a flutist and an alto and soprano saxophonist. He also plays the clarinet and the piccolo. Wilson performs on many different instruments and has performed and recorded on over twenty-five albums. His interests include folk, jazz, classical, world music, and experimental music. Wilson is currently on the faculty of New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. He was elected as an American Champion by the National Flute Association. Wilson has maintained a busy career working as a session musician, and has contributed to many musicians of note both in the recording studios, but as a sideman on tours. Over the years he has participated in engagements with several musical ensembles, as well as his own solo efforts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luis Perdomo (pianist)</span> American jazz pianist and composer (born 1971)

Luis Perdomo is an American jazz pianist and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snarky Puppy</span> American jazz ensemble

Snarky Puppy is an American jazz fusion band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won five Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalists, League described Snarky Puppy as "a pop band that improvises a lot, without vocals".

Alex Sipiagin is a Russian jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player.

Mark Samuel Soskin is an American jazz pianist based in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nir Felder</span> American jazz guitarist, composer, and songwriter

Nir Felder is a Grammy-winning American jazz and session guitarist, composer, and music producer. In addition to leading his own band, Felder has performed and recorded with a diverse array of artists across the jazz and popular music genre spectrum, including Diana Krall, Brad Mehldau, John Mayer, Rina Sawayama, Ben Platt, Chaka Khan, Keyon Harrold, Robert Glasper, Chris Dave, PJ Morton, Snarky Puppy, Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington, Erykah Badu, Common, Anderson .Paak, Dave Chapelle, Dave Matthews Band, Benson Boone, Cautious Clay, Faith Evans, Skylar Grey, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Terri Lyne Carrington, Vijay Iyer, Blood Sweat and Tears, Chuck Mangione, Greg Osby, Jordan Smith, Amy Schumer, Victor Wooten, Shoshana Bean, Jack DeJohnette, Esperanza Spalding, Bobby McFerrin, Meshell Ndegeocello, Dianne Reeves, the New York City Opera, and others. In both 2021 and 2023, he won Downbeat Magazine's Critic's Poll for "Rising Star Guitarist."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vulfpeck</span> American band

Vulfpeck is an American funk band founded in 2011 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by Jack Stratton, Theo Katzman, Woody Goss and Joe Dart. The band has released four extended plays, six studio albums and one live album through their own record label. The band gained recognition in 2014 for releasing Sleepify, a silent album that exposed a loophole in Spotify's royalty distribution and funded an admission-free tour. The band is one of the first to sell out Madison Square Garden without a manager or backing label, and released the recorded performance as a live album in 2019. The band's most recent album, Schvitz, was released in December 2022.

Qmillion, is an American record producer, mix engineer, composer, and songwriter based in Los Angeles, California, United States. Qmillion's achievement for recording and mixing recording artist Robert Glasper's critically acclaimed Black Radio album, gained him a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album at the 55th Grammy Awards in 2013. and most recently nominated for Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Black Radio III by Robert Glasper on the 2023 Grammys.

Yvonnick Prené is a French harmonica player and a recording artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cory Wong</span> American guitarist

Cory Wong is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer based in Minneapolis. He has released many works as a solo artist and in partnership with others. His background spans several genres including jazz, rock, and funk. He has performed with Vulfpeck, Dave Koz, Stay Human, The Fearless Flyers, Ben Rector, Dr. Mambo's Combo, Chris Thile, Dave Matthews Band, and Dirty Loops. He released several albums in 2020, including Live in Amsterdam, a collaboration with the Metropole Orkest, and Meditations, a new-age album with Jon Batiste. His recent works include two albums released in conjunction with his variety show.

References

  1. "Grammy Awards – Nate Smith". grammy.com. Archived from the original on May 2, 2018. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Thom Jurek. "Allmusic: Nate Smith – biography". Allmusic.com. Archived from the original on March 28, 2018. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  3. 1 2 Natalie Weiner (January 6, 2017). "Nate Smith Debuts 'Pages' With Gretchen Parlato & Talks About the Song He Wrote for Michael Jackson". Billboard. Archived from the original on January 7, 2017. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
  4. 1 2 "Drummerworld: Nate Smith". drummerworld.com. Archived from the original on February 6, 2018. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  5. "Allmusic: Nate Smith – credits". Allmusic.com. Archived from the original on April 2, 2018. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  6. Shannon J. Effinger (October 17, 2016). "Q&A with Drummer Nate Smith: From Many Voices, One Sound". DownBeat. Archived from the original on April 2, 2018. Retrieved May 1, 2018.
  7. "The Fearless Flyers on Apple Music".