LinearDrummer said:What a shame of drummer of this magnitude with barely 2 pages of responses....
Guys need to get with the program and recognize a true drumming technician...
Please!
michael drums said:Hey Linear. I couldn't agree more with that. It IS a shame! I love Steve Smith. He's really advanced from a great rock drummer to, what you say, a true drumming technician. Thanks for pointing this out. Play On!
Muckster said:Steve Smith has always been a Jazz drummer, rock was not his starting point. He turned down a touring gig with Freddie Hubbard in order to join Montrose. He wanted to develop some experience playing rock which led to the Journey gig.
LinearDrummer said:Ahhh O.K. thanks for clearing that up....So jazz was always his thang....
I actually thought he was a rock based drummer that was classically trained at Berklee and he wanted to get back to his roots after Journey and do some jazz...
michael drums said:Hey Linear. I couldn't agree more with that. It IS a shame! I love Steve Smith. He's really advanced from a great rock drummer to, what you say, a true drumming technician. Thanks for pointing this out. Play On!
DrumMasterDave said:Hey all, I gotta throw my 2 cents in here too! Steve Smith is Very good. Im not sure what DVD it was, But i remember seeing him play with Victor Wooten, and he blew me away. His hi hat control and stick control lis soo good. He also did a huge Section on polyrythms. Kept changing the times and such. Great guy!
Vlad Popescu said:On Modern Drummer Festival ?
Skitch said:Steve Smith was always a great drummer. He just happened to be a drummer who was looking for a gig when Journey hired him! Steve has taken that opportuntiy and made a great life for himself. We should all be this lucky to be financially successful enough to hone our skills to level he has! Everything he did with Journey was enough, but what he has done with his skill and music puts him in a very elite group of players. He could have disappeared after Journey, but he cared enough to keep going. If you don't have it, you should check out the "Vitalive!" album. Also, because of websites like Amazon, you can now find discs like the very first Vital Information album (also recommended) available.
Mike
http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=drummermikemccraw
Synthetik said:I saw Jouney in the late 70's It was the first time I saw a drummer play two kick drums. Steve was using some kind of DW pedals back then and (IIRC) an early red sonor kit. I thought he was amazing then, a Berklee educated jazzman-come-rocker.
"EC34PE" was an early favorite of mine because of the way Steve supported the music through the whole thing. He added value and taste. Later on "frontiers" he had the consummate arena-rock sound.
Now he has gone full circle, and I am glad to see that he has not only been able to play the music he wants to, make a superb DVD, and elevate his playing to mastery.
Steve Smith has made his mark in two distinct genres of music.
I am going to buy his latest DVD very soon.