Ches Smith

Ches Smith works as a percussionist, drummer, and composer whose experimental and avant-garde leanings shape an approach that bends across genres while favoring improvisation. He first entered wider view in the mid-'90s by filling in on tour for Mr. Bungle, an entry point that soon grew into sustained partnerships with Xiu Xiu, John Zorn, Mary Halvorson, and many more. Among his own projects are the 2010 These Arches album Finally Out of My Hands, the 2012 solo percussion set Psycho Predictions, and the 2016 ECM trio recording The Bell alongside Mat Maneri and Craig Taborn. In 2017 the Haitian jazz ensemble We All Break issued its self-titled debut digitally. Smith appeared on Dave Holland’s Uncharted Territories in 2018 and joined David Torn and Tim Berne for Sun of Goldfinger the next year. After placing We All Break on Kris Davis’ Pyroclastic Records in 2020, he brought out Path of Seven Colors in 2021; the expanded octet version of the group added saxophonist Miguel Zenón and vocalist Sirene Dantor Rene to the original quartet. In 2022 Smith reconvened with Taborn and Maneri, this time adding guitarist Bill Frisell, to record the quartet album Interpret It Well.

Born in San Diego, Smith spent his formative years in the Sacramento region and first took up music as a teenager, performing with punk, metal, and avant-garde jazz ensembles. Following high school he enrolled at the University of Oregon to study philosophy, then moved to San Francisco in the mid-'90s. There he spent several years gigging in local groups and taking private lessons with percussionist Peter Magadini before entering the graduate program at Mills College in Oakland. At Mills he pursued percussion, improvisation, and composition with William Winant, Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros, and Alvin Curran. During that time he received an early career boost by substituting for Winant on tour with Mr. Bungle, an opportunity that also led him into bassist Trevor Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant. After completing his studies, Smith became a sought-after collaborator, balancing engagements with noise-rock outfits such as Xiu Xiu and Secret Chiefs 3 and work alongside forward-leaning players including Tim Berne, John Zorn, and Wadada Leo Smith.

Smith’s first solo outing, Congs for Brums, appeared in 2006; These Arches followed with Finally Out of My Hands in 2010. Two years later he released the solo percussion-and-electronics album Psycho Predictions, contributed to Tim Berne’s ECM date Snakeoil (his third recording with the band), and joined Darius Jones on Book of Mae'bul: Another Kind of Sunrise for AUM Fidelity. A busy 2013 found him on sessions by Marc Ribot, Mary Halvorson, Matt Mitchell, and Tim Berne, as well as Secret Chiefs 3’s Book of Souls: Folio A. The next year Secret Chiefs 3 issued Ishraqiyun while These Arches put out International Hookah. In 2015 Smith again recorded with Berne, Jones, and Halvorson.

His ECM debut as a leader arrived in January 2016 with the trio album The Bell, featuring pianist Craig Taborn and violist Mat Maneri. In 2018 he joined bassist Dave Holland, saxophonist Evan Parker, and Taborn for Uncharted Territories. The following year he returned to the label for Sun of Goldfinger with David Torn and Tim Berne.

Over many years Smith has maintained a focused engagement with Haitian music and vodou ceremonial traditions, studying and performing with master drummers in New York and traveling to Haiti for additional immersion. In 2015 he assembled We All Break, a quartet completed by pianist Matt Mitchell and hand drummers/vocalists Daniel Brevil and Markus Schwartz. The group released its self-titled debut digitally in 2017.

Even while maintaining other commitments, Smith remained deeply involved with We All Break, convening whenever schedules permitted. In 2020 the band signed with Pyroclastic Records and entered the studio; Smith enlarged the lineup to an octet by adding saxophonist Miguel Zenón, bassist Nick Dunston, vocalist Sirene Dantor Rene, and percussionist Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene. Path of Seven Colors emerged in June 2021. The package paired a physical edition of the original 2015 album with the new 2020 octet material.

In 2018 guitarist Bill Frisell attended a concert by the Bell trio. Subsequent exchanges led to Frisell sitting in with the group in 2020, just before pandemic lockdowns began. That October the quartet tracked Smith’s compositions over two days at an upstate New York studio with Ron Saint Germain, observing social distancing. Pyroclastic issued the resulting album, Interpret It Well, in May 2022.