JazzKLUB / Ches Smith / The Shaman of Experiment - NOSPR

For more than two decades, Ches Smith has been a mainstay in the ensembles of some of the most influential leaders of our time. One day he is navigating the borderlands of jazz and free improvisation with Tim Berne; the next he is thrashing out experimental rock with Xiu Xiu. He has performed John Zorn’s refined and intricate compositions, only to deliver sheer sonic demolition with Marc Ribot’s free-punk Ceramic Dog a moment later. His solo output constitutes a near-impossible synthesis of all these experiences. On his genius most recent album Clone Row, everything mixes with everything else, outstanding electronics is rubbing shoulders with jazz sensibility, two guitars in the line-up offer endless possibilities for sound and counterpoint – and yet the group sounds incredibly coherent. The drummer’s biography also reveals serious study of Haitian voodoo, and these fascinations are also woven into his music. In essence, Smith turns out to be a shaman of experiment, who imperceptibly alters the listener’s state of consciousness through the very architecture of his compositions.

Tomasz Gregorczyk