Jazz Articles about Roger Smith

Tower of Power: 50 Years of Funk and Soul

by John Pietaro
April 15, 2021

In the realm of power funk and jazz-rock, Tower of Power was an original voice, one carved from a unique place within an exceptionally heady moment. And this convergence of forces, clearly, has yet to cool some 53 years hence. Horns? They've carried up to six at a time, to hell with diminished door splits. A big band of scorching funk, Tower of Power traces its roots to 1968 Oakland, where it flourished in a thicket of sound ...

Tony Adamo: Was Out Jazz Zone Mad

by Nicholas F. Mondello
January 27, 2019

The translation of “Adam" from Hebrew--from which the surname Adamo springs--means from the “ground" or “soil." It also derives from the Hebrew word for red, a la “red clay." Perhaps that is why any work from Tony Adamo is rare earth--gritty, and flaming crimson. Was Out Jazz Zone Mad Adamo's latest, his first for Ropeadope, is all of those things and more.Adamo is the Heavyweight Champion of “hipspokenword," wherein lingo meets vocalizing at the corner of jazz and ...

Tony Adamo: Was Out Jazz Zone Mad

by Chris M. Slawecki
January 15, 2019

Some African cultures preserved their history not by the written but by the spoken word, kept by oral cultural historians known as griots. On Was Out Jazz Zone Mad, vocalist Tony Adamo aspires to serve in this same role, as a verbal historian of both official and unofficial African-American jazz and blues culture. This type of jazz jive might wear quickly thin but Adamo writes about jazz and jazz musicians with such detailed intimacy and vision that his words snap, ...

Roger Smith & Louis Moholo-Moholo: The Butterfly and the Bee

by Glenn Astarita
March 30, 2005

Former Brotherhood of Breath drummer Louis Moholo and British free-form acoustic guitarist Roger Smith lay their cards out on the table during this extremely attractive studio set. Essentially, neither man acts as an antagonist here. It's more about intrinsic communication, topped off with acutely enacted improvisations featuring great depth and variable rhythmic maneuvers. Moholo's complex drumming parameters are counterbalanced with his alternating use of small percussion instruments. They pursue mechanisms for altering flows and pulses in areas where Smith's buzzing ...

Roger Smith: Extended Plays

by Robert Spencer
August 1, 1999

Roger Smith plays a Spanish guitar, upon which he improvises freely, somewhat in the manner of Derek Bailey, who was for a time his teacher. Yet Extended Plays illustrates that Smith is no imitator, but a freely improvising guitarist with very much his own style. Like Bailey, Smith avoids grooves of any kind, but he is not disdainful of a bit of motivic repetition when it serves his purpose (see the quasi-chording and strumming of “Summer Afternoon Sequence 4B"). As ...

Roger Smith: Extended Plays - solo guitar improvisations 1993-97

by Glenn Astarita
July 1, 1999

Guitarist Roger Smith is well known for his long association with the late John Stevens’ now legendary, Spontaneous Music Ensemble of which he spent nearly 20 years. Smith is recognized for his ingenuity as a free-improvisational guitarist. Here, on Extended Plays-Improvised Solos we are treated to 9 pieces from this truly amazing, starkly original and somewhat under appreciated guitarist. Throughout, Smith utilizes an unamplified acoustic guitar.

Smith is a master improviser and possesses a unique, singular voice. A one-time student ...