Clint Smith

Clint Smith (guitarist) has been working as a bandleader and a sideman for the past 8 years. His trio consisting of Erik Feder on drums and John Romey on bass has played many different venues in New York City and the tri-state area. In addition, Smith plays classical and electric guitar with the Deep Earth Groove Society, a 5-piece band co-led by Smith, Seth Mehl (erhu), and Bill Buchen (tabla; Bill Laswell, Indo-Funk). The group is joined by Raoul Bjorkenheim (the Scorch Trio; Krakatau) on slide guitar and Richard Bennett on melodica. Smith's main focus in his groups is on innovating through original compositions that range from elaborate arrangements with many shifts in texture and emotion to sketch melodies that serve as the base for collective improvisation.

Smith's first CD, entitled "Obliteration of the Self", was recorded in 2000 with Sarth Calhoun on bass and Erik Feder on drums. A fusion CD in every sense of the word (from the opening rock anthem-like instrumental structures of "Choosing Love", to the ambient free-jazz echoes of "Wake", to the multi-part structure of the 25-minute closing piece, "East Timor"), it focused less on harmonic improvisation than it did on soundscapes and collective improvisation and also demonstrated Smith's interest in genres as disparate as 70s metal, gamelan music, and the thunderous fanfare of jazz-rock groups such as Lifetime and the Mahavishnu orchestra.

Resolve, recorded in 2004 with Marco Panascia on bass and Jordan Young on drums, narrowed the focus down to a more definable jazz idiom while at the same time delving deeper into the modes and structures of different types of world music (North African/Arabic music translated into a free jazz idiom on "West of the Nile", Indian raga-like figures on the solo guitar piece "Love). Currently, Smith is in the studio with a quartet [Erik Feder (drums), John Romey (bass), Matt LaVon (alto and soprano sax)] recording a new set of original compositions for release in late 2006 or early 2007.

Erik Feder

Erik Feder (drums) has taken 25 years of playing in progressive, free jazz, and straight ahead contexts and combined them expertly to create a unique approach built around polyrhythms, expansive dynamic range, and the creative use of percussion that he has acquired from across the world (Thailand, Afghanistan, and Egypt). He has been noted for his rapid odd-time patterns and while working with Rob Sbar's Noesis and with E Motive. His teachers include Kenwood Dennard (Dizzy Gillespie, Brand X) and Jim Thoma (a regular on the Broadway pit orchestra scene).

John Romey

John Romey (double bass) has performed regularly in the United States and also in France, where he studied with Francois Rabbath and worked with him during the research that went into Rabbath's bass method "Nouvelle Technique de la Contrabasse". He is currently finishing his BA in music at City College in New York and has been awarded the Naumberg Fellowship to work on a book specifically devoted to Rabbath's method. His bass playing is notable for his arco playing in a much wider variety of contexts than is customary, giving propulsive music the feeling sometimes of classical music and sometimes of the avant-garde. He is also currently leading his own trio and writing classical music for the double bass and other instruments.

Matt LaVon

Matt LaVon (alto/tenor/soprano saxophone) attended the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, working in the jazz scene in Philadelphia and New Jersey until moving to New York in 2001. In addition to having led his own jazz trio for 2 years, consisting of Jon Madof on guitar and Sean Noonan on drums, Matt currently is working on many different electronic and new music compositions.

 © Clint Smith Quartet

For some ungodly reason unknown to me, Mr. Smith's CD is not on a proper label. Unbridled restraint would best describe this intricate and cerebral music. Resolve pushes forth an agenda which reigns prudently between the disparate worlds of waltz-driven guitar ballads and the avant-garde echoes of the past. Bassist Marco Panascia's solid performance, as well as Mr. Smith's always-smooth guitar style, provides the music with the necessary vision, periphery, and comfort. But the engine in this vehicle is Jordan Young, one of the best drummers that I have heard in quite some time. So, allow me to digress and once again ask why this CD is not on a proper label. Is Mr. Smith just shy, or are the labels dumber than a sack of rocks?

Compositionally, the music is thoughtful and pleasant, although I think some more variation is in order, as the songs sometimes drift together in sound and spirit and seem formulaic in nature. My advice to Mr. Smith would be to keep Panascia and Young for a new project, but take on another instrument, possibly woodwind in nature, which would keep in line with the compositional style set forth. A quartet would certainly offer more opportunity to add a bountiful array of variation, color, and texture to the music.

 © Michael Casano - JazzReview.com

On the individual songs of "Resolve":

Advent: Trying to think of the openness of spring with this one. Work in some blue notes and tensions in the opening melody line without compromising the basic simplicity of the tune. Marco's bass simply plays some pretty elaborate but diatonic fills underneath. The guitar/drums duet, beyond the initial two chords of it, was invented on the spot. It would go in different directions with different takes, we ended up taking this one...

Resolve: The theme of the record: Resolve. I'm really looking forward to rearranging it for the new quartet, or maybe even larger ensembles, and taking advantage of the possibilities of multiple lead voices. The bass simply drives it through; and the piece being in seven always keeps it fresh, the melodic fills jump in earlier than expected.

If I Had Known: My response to the slow. ballad-like waltzes of my favorite guitarist, John Abercrombie, although the composition is quite different from something he would write the idea of a slow, somewhat dark waltz, filled with minor chords, definitely started there. The chromatic movement of the bass through most of the tunes' changes really allowed the arco bass/drum solo section in the middle to take off; the first time we'd played it with the bass playing through the solo was this take.

Circumnavigation: Now a staple of the live shows, a bit toned down on the record compared to a lot of the distortion and 20-minute jamming that goes on live!

West of the Nile: I tried restricting the range of the acoustic guitar on this one, at the beginning, to the range that an oud would have, to give it the feel of a North African piece that was, for some reason unknown, being played over free jazz drums, and bass fills that were in the same register. As Arabic music is generally monophonic it struck me that doing this would give these rapid 16th-note fills a completely different sound; not like free jazz for their lack of pitch variation and harmonic expansiveness, not like Arabic music for being too active, too confrontational.

Love: The simplest song of the 6; a guitar solo, a melody with five notes. I would have liked to have continued experimenting with the bending of the last few notes into the various quarter tones right near the end, with the kind of vibrato where you turn your finger sideways and kind of toggle the string while pressing it into the fretboard. There's always the next record for it...I liked how it came out, more meditative than the rest of the record...

Clint Smith has been playing guitar for 20 years, ever since he picked up an old 3/4-size acoustic in his bedroom and started plucking the open strings (needless to say, the fact that the instrument had frets and the strings had to be pressed into them came a bit later to him). Starting out exploring blues, heavy metal, and other sorts of music that he thought people would get into, and getting involved in the typical "fast guitar lick" duels with various other guitarists, Clint was eventually pushed towards jazz by his teacher, Eric Waters, a professor at George Washington University. His early 20s were spent attempting to master the theory behind the music and understand how all of the disparate rhythmic and harmonic elements of jazz came together to make a very abstract, yet also very vibrant and beautiful music.

 © From Clint Smith Trio MySpace webpage