E. Doctor Smith's Blog

Drummer Billy Martin of Medeski, Martin and Wood and up and coming organist Wil Blades come together for a new duo project. After two highly successful shows in San Francisco and New Orleans, Martin and Blades are taking the show on the road. The duo's music is at once danceable and highly improvisational. With a steady base as one-third of the renowned experimental jazz trio Medeski, Martin, & Wood, drummer Billy Martin has become one of the most forward-thinking, innovative, and influential percussionists in the music world. His ultra-sensitive, hyper-melodic drumming -- which explores the ideas of jazz, hip-hop, electronica, African music, and other genres -- has an organic feel to it, filled with soft, natural edges and fluid energies. When not performing with Medeski Martin & Wood, Martin continues to collaborate with other musicians in improvisational projects, many of which are documented on his own Amulet Records imprint, which he founded in 1995. Blades, a native C...

The Drummstick v.2.0 and the Zendrum EXP By 2001, I'd already been playing the Drummstick, (my analog-MIDI drum controller), for 7 seven years, and in August of that same year, I finally got the chance to debut the first ever Drummstick album with a CD release show at the State Theater in Falls Church, Va. Joining me were my regular bandmates, (Celia DuBose, Neil Mezebish and Jack Wright), and some special guests, Siobhan Canty, Neeta Ragoowansi, Eric Dahlman, Carlos Martins, and the Indian percussionist Sandip Burman. Burman nearly stole the show with his incredible tabla playing, and rightly so, as he was also on tour with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones promoting their "Outbound" album with Andy Narell, Paul Hanson and Paul McCandless. The next day, we took Burman to Wolftrap, Va. to rejoin the tour with Fleck and the Flecktones. It was there that I first met Roy "Futureman" Wooten, off stage after a great sound check. Wooten and I spoke at length about the Dru...

Describing this latest release, Trilok Gurtu's website provides the best insight, stating, "Two short snippets recorded live by Trilok Gurtu and Don Cherry, bookend the album “Spellbound”: a 33-second improvisation in a duo with Cherry on trumpet and Trilok Gurtu, who can be heard on the drum set especially converted and modified for his needs, forms the start of the new CD by the Indian percussionist, while a brief “Thank you, thank you very much” from Cherry for the applause of the audience closes the album. Even though the other pieces on “Spellbound” contain no other recordings with this jazz legend, who died in Malaga in Spain in 1995, every single sound on the CD is an expression of Trilok Gurtu's great admiration for the man and musician Don Cherry. After all, it was the American trumpeter who, in the first half of the 1970s, encouraged the young percussionist, freshly arrived in Europe, i.e. Italy, from his homeland of India, to pursue his vision of an i...

This Friday night, The Orange Peels return to Cafe Du Nord for 2 shows, (10:00 pm is sold out), to celebrate the release of their latest album, "Sun Moon". Led by the Sunnyvale pop-smith Allen Clapp, and his partner-in-crime, bassist Jill Pries, this new album also features longtime member John Moremen on guitar, and drummer Gabriel Coen, "Sun Moon" is the band's first collaborative effort. Clapp and his cohorts have kept true to their wonderful sound on this new material, plus they've also added a few songs only heard at their live performances, like the rollicking  "Aether Tide", a crowd favorite. The Peels website provides a bit of insight into the making of Sun Moon, stating that, "Sometimes plans can be overrated. Sure they can help focus a group toward a common goal, but overdo it and you can end up with an album that sounds and feels more like a corporate quarterly report than art…" "When The Orange Peels embarked on recording...

With the mercurial defending champion, grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura off in Europe, (and managing to defeat the current world champion, Vishwanathan Anand), grandmaster Gata Kamsky won his 4th US Chess Championship title in a 3 game playoff against Alejandro Ramirez of Costa Rica. The previous 9 rounds saw Kamsy lead the field, only to be slowed by successive draws, and allowing Ramirez to catch him. Tied going into am playoff, the first two games were hotly contested draws, however the third game proved to be decisive. The rules of the championship state that if the players are tied 1-1 going into a third game, they must play what is called, an "Armageddon match", where players bid for time and color. Hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club, the US Chess Championship was moderated on the web by 3 of the best in US chess, Jennifer Shahade, grandmasters Yasser Seirawan and Maurice Ashley. Chess viewing is a far cry from the the old PBS days of Fischer vs. Spassky, and commentators ...

"Bass and bassoon are not your usual musical duo partners. But when Paul Hanson and Ariane Cap met and talked about how they have both been using their instruments beyond their traditional roles, they felt an immediate kinship on so many levels. They agreed that what matters most is the music and not the 'tool'. They could relate how one could just fall in love with a sound. They understood the challenge and joy of hearing something inside and bending the instrument beyond its intended techniques to create new sounds. They both went digging into their piles of favorite compositions and came together to jam and experiment. As soon as music started speaking it became apparent that they had a unique sound! Their shared appreciation for diverse styles immediately took them around the world, to the past and into the present. Above all what made it click was their huge appreciation for melody, and - equally above all - their huge appreciation for groove. In record t...