Tuesday – Wednesday, November 6-7 at Jazz Alley
Tom Coster – keyboards
Baron Browne – bass
Vinny Valentino – guitar
Steve Smith – drums
Now in their 24th year since their initial 1983 release, Steve Smith and Vital Information have become a formidable jazz/fusion juggernaut whose longevity surpasses all of the major fusion groups. The all-star lineup serves a veritable banquet of sounds, from slamming funk and syncopated second line grooves to seriously swinging, uptempo B-3 burners, South Indian inspired jams and sizzling fuzoid romps. The group’s founder and drummer, Steve Smith, has a resume that stretches from Ahmad Jamal, Zakir Hussain, The Buddy Rich Big Band and Steps Ahead to Andrea Bocelli and Journey. It is no surprise that he won Modern Drummer Magazine’s #1 All Around Drummer award five years in a row and was voted one of the Top 25 Drummers of All Time in a recent Modern Drummer reader’s poll. In 2002 Smith was voted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame.