Ches Smith

Ches Smith is a drummer, percussionist, and composer whose work spans avant-garde jazz, experimental rock, and Haitian Vodou drumming. Raised in Sacramento, California, he studied philosophy at the University of Oregon before settling in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1995, where he studied percussion and composition with Fred Frith, William Winant, and Pauline Oliveros. He leads a trio with pianist Craig Taborn and violist Mat Maneri that released The Bell on ECM in 2016, and his group We All Break draws on more than two decades of study in the Haitian Vodou tradition, documented on Path of Seven Colors (2021). His writing extends to the chamber-inflected ensemble album Laugh Ash (2024) on Pyroclastic Records. As a sideman he has worked widely with Tim Berne, Marc Ribot, John Zorn, Mary Halvorson, Darius Jones, and Terry Riley, among many others.