Nate Smith's energy is contagious. The drummer, producer and bandleader is holding court in the studio, joking with members of his group and eliciting smiles from engineers and producers.
You get the sense that's the vibe he brings with him everywhere and why he wanted to make his new studio album one big party. Inspired by classic records like Quincy Jones' Q's Jook Joint, it's called LIVE-ACTION. It features Snarky Puppy's Michael League, producer Carrtoons and singer Lalah Hathaway, to name a few.
Smith is a mainstay in the jazz world with The Fearless Flyers. He got his first writing credit on Michael Jackson's "Heaven Can Wait." He's been an in-demand collaborator for artists like Brittany Howard, and his drumming tutorials rack up tens of thousands of likes on social media.
In this session, we'll get into all of those things, plus Smith performs some of the songs off of LIVE-ACTION.
This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. Our digital producer is Miguel Perez. World Cafe's engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.
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