And we haven’t even talked about the reason he’s in town this week at Catalina’s with his incarnation of Vital Information with bassist Janek Gwizdala and pianist/keyboardist Manuel Valera. Time has flown with his band, as this tour has Smith celebrating the 40th year of the band, touring to promote the release of the latest album, a swinging double disc combo entitled, you guessed it Time Flies, inspired by the title of one of the tracks by bebop pioneer Bud Powell, whose “Tempus Fugit” (for you Lain aficionados out there) that is on the album and presented in modernized form by the fiery trio in the 90 minute set.
If you were in the audience and expecting things like versions of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing”, you were going to have your mind expanded by the Smith’s masterful drumming that make rock songs like that look like Dr. Seuss compared to Vital Information’s Shakespeare.
With Valera mixing up hip keyboards and piano to Gwizdala’s bouncing bass, Smith supplied an energetic back beat to the funky “Emergence” while his brushes assuaged the snares on the nifty bopper “Tempus Fugue-It” and deftly danced like Astaire while digging in deep around the Ginger Rogers of a bass solo on “Darn That Dream.” Smith’s sticks rumbled in the jungle on a kinetic “Un Poco Loco” while the cymbals skipped like stones cast on Lake Superior on a dark “What Is This Thing Called Loved” that shifted like the sands of the Sahara desert.
The drums simmered on the intro to the rippling “No Qualm” while here and on the raucous “Choreography In 6” Smith used his hands to tap out the soft pulse and then tapped gong like a ride cymbal for an exotic cadence.
And speaking of exotic, just when you think Smith can take rhythm any further, She shows he has mastered the Indian tradition of vocal called Konokkol on pieces, popping the clutch on “Charukeshi Express” and the tricky 13 beat “Heart Of The City” and having rhythms bouncing off the walls like the shootout at OK Coral.
The drum workshop of an evening closed with a bluesy and swampy “Looking Bad” that had Gwizdala creating spacey effects with his pedals, with a closing “The Perfect Date” that mixing 5g forces on the climactic solo and finish of the song that summarized the celebrated the passage of time in counts of 4, 6, 8 and 13.
Upcoming shows at Catalina’s include Veronica Swift 04/07-08, Steve Gadd 04/20-22, Omar Sosa 04/23, Billy Childs 04/28-29 and Tierney Sutton 05/05-06