The Metro Word, Toronto
The hollow tones of a Steelpan might seem a major disadvantage for the warm note-
bending playing required in jazz soloing, but with a delicate style of improvisation
and careful attention to each song´s structure, Smith has defied convention and
emerged as a sought-after player.
Svend Asmussen
I have been a secret fan of Rudy´s for many years - from the moment i first heard
him, I´ve been raving about his incredible musicianship, his impeccacble taste and
soulful phrasing. He and Toots Thielemans, who both make you forget the
unsurmountable technical defficulties of their respective instruments, belong in my
personal gallery of heroes with Louis, Duke, Bird, Stuff, Stan, Dizzy and a few that
you probably never heard of.
Ernie Wilkins
I just think it´s marvelous album and Rudy is one of a kind. I have never heard a
steel-drum player like him before in my life! I am very impressed with his
compositions.
Mark Miller, The Globe and Mail, Toronto
It would be all too easy to make a fuss about the apparent novelty of the steel drum
as a jazz instrument. The sound of the pan, after all, is the sound of calypso, not of
bebop- or blues-note, at least, until Rudy Smith, a trinidadian musician traveling out
of Copenhagen, strikes the first notes of a hip tune like John Coltrane´s "Some Other
Blues". Damned if it isn´t perfectly natural.
Krister Malm, Ph. D., musicologist, Sweden
Double alto pan player Rudy Smith has started a new phase in the story of pan. And
not only in the story of the pan but in the story of Afro-American music. Rudy Smith
has married the most important Afro-Carribian invention in the field of musical
instruments, the steelpan, to the most important Afro-American musical tradition,
the jazz. And more than that. He has developed a solo style of the steelpan which
has not been heard before. His technique is dazzling. But it is not a question of
empty virtuosity. Rudy Smith´s playing is marked by the same astonishing
inventiveness that has created the steelpan.
Thorbjoern Sjoegren, Berlingske Tidende, Denmark
It may perhaps be rather natural (and easy) to consider the use of steel-drums in jazz
as something of curiosity, but the way in which Rudy Smith handles his two 50 cm-
wide metal things it is not difficult for him to convince us of thier legitimate use in
jazz.
Rudy Smith
Rudy Smith, Double Alto Steelpan
Rudy Smith is a Trinidadian steelpan player from
Port of Spain. Noted for his performances with many highly regarded
jazz artist, Rudy has attracted attention as one of the brightest
steelpan soloist in jazz. Mr. Smith has recorded and performed with
artist such as George Cables, Tommy Flanagan, Horace Parlan, Bernie
Senesky, Andrew Cyrille. Frank Morgan, Ed Thigpen, David Williams, Dom
Um Ramao, Red Mitchell, Mats Winding, Belgium TV Big Band, Don Thompson
and many others...
