Profile
Name:
Matt Smith
Channel Views:
39,318
Total Upload Views:
2,179,474
Style:
Jazz
Age:
22
Joined:
May 3, 2006
Latest Activity:
1 month ago
Subscribers:
878
About Me:
Matt Smith is an award winning young jazz drummer, television and radio personality, turntable mixologist, occasional vibraphonist, and former speed drumming world champion.
Matt is the son and grandson of two accomplished jazz musicians. His father served as a Fulbright Professor of Jazz in Romania, Serbia, and South Africa, led a celebrated big band in the 1980s, and was named the 2008 recipient of the IAJE Jazz Ambassador Award. Matt's grandfather was New Orleans' best known jazz trombonist a decade before, a pioneering jazz educator, and a performer with several national orchestras.
Matt was introduced to the drums at age 9, when Louie Bellson (one of his father's performing acquaintances) gave him his first pair of drumsticks. Matt's official debut occured at age 12, when he performed for a jazz combo on Romanian National Television.
At age 14, Matt recorded his first album under his own name (Coltrane Redeux) featuring an all star European jazz lineup. In 2005 (without Bellson's knowledge), Matt entered the Louie Bellson National Drumset Competition, and became the youngest finalist in that competition's history.
From 2005-2008 he held a number of speed drumming world records, and in 2007, set the world speed endurance record when he performed 5132 single strokes in five consecutive minutes. On June 26, 2008 Matt broke Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini's 4 year old traditional grip world speed record, when he recorded 1132 single strokes played in 1 minute, making him the world's fastest verifiable traditional grip drummer of all time.
Since 2005, Matt has performed and been interviewed on numerous American media outlets, including PBS, CBS Radio and CNN. In 2008, a PBS news segment featuring Matt and drummer Johnny Rabb was nominated for an Arts and Entertainment News Documentary Emmy Award.
At age 18, with speed drumming activities behind him, Matt began performing with a variety of diverse world class bands showcasing jazz, rock, hip hop, pop, funk and blues. In 2008 he was named a runnerup in the Rising Star category of the Drum Magazine Readers Poll, and has appeared as an endorser/ clinician/ performer at several NAMM conventions.
Matt is a 2009 graduate of the Atlanta Institute of Music, and from 2009-2011 resided in Europe, where he performed regularly throughout the continent with numerous ensembles, including as house drummer with Euro blues star AG Weinberger on the weekly television show Acadeaua. In 2011 Matt relocated to Nashville, TN.
Label Type:
Independent
Influences:
Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Tony Williams, Joe Morello, Max Roach, Santana, Buddy Rich, old school hip-hop
Country:
United States
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