#205 Jeremy Smith- Percussionist, Educator and More!
This episode is sponsored by Dream Cymbals.
Jeremy Smith is the featured guest on this week’s episode of the podcast. Jeremy is a percussive artist whose unique versatility allows him to move seamlessly among musical worlds. While the foundation of his playing comes from his classical training at The Juilliard School, his interests lie in a wide range of folkloric and modern percussion traditions from around the globe such as those found in South America, North Africa, India, Spain, the Middle East, and the U.S. He performs regularly with flamenco guitarist and composer Andreas Arnold, Peruvian music group Festejation, Middle-Eastern music collective Brooklyn Nomads, and global jazz quintet Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica. He has been a featured player in performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Hudson Valley Philharmonic. In 2016 he was invited to the International Percussion Festival in Seoul, South Korea as a solo world percussion concert artist. In the Fall of 2017 he toured the U.S. with The Knights chamber orchestra featuring guest artists Avi Avital and Kinan Azmeh. Other collaborations and performances include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Gypsy All-Stars, Farah Siraj, Antonio Lizana, Jorge Glem, Al Margen Flamenco, Fleur Seule Latin Big Band, Terraza 7 Big Band, Zāna, Quentin Angus, NY Andalus Ensemble, Megumi Saruhashi, Barbara Martinez, Adam Maalouf, Johanna Castañeda, and many more. As a passionate educator of hand percussion, Jeremy has presented clinics and classes at the University of Michigan, Columbia University, and Bowling Green State University. He has presented online classes for students at Indiana University and Ithaca College. He also meets regularly with students from around the U.S. online or live at his home New York City. Jeremy received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Juilliard School.
Gig Alerts
The Jazz Foundation of America continue their fundraising efforts on behalf of musicians affected by the pandemic with “Bird Calls,” a livestream event on FANS celebrating the centennial birthday of alto saxophonist Charlie “Yardbird” Parker on Thursday, December 10 at 8PM ET with an encore rebroadcast scheduled for 8PM PT.
Musical Director Steve Jordan brought in a group of the world’s leading altoists: Antonio Hart, Vincent Herring, Miguel Zenón, Tom Scott, Jaleel Shaw, and Japan’s Erena Terakubo along with Kenny Barron, George Cables, Craig Haynes (son of Roy Haynes, who himself played behind Parker); trumpeters Jimmy Owens and Keyon Harrold; and guitarist Russell Malone. Nioka Workman’s Firey String Sistas guest on a performance saluting
Parker’s “Bird With Strings” recordings for Verve. New Orleans’ legends, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, also make an appearance to touch on Charlie Parker’s lasting influence on the Crescent City. -More Info
Social Soundbyte
Jeremy Bosch has released a new single with the help of several friends of the show. The song is called Acércate.
You can read the credits to who was involved below…..
Educational Spotlight
This week’s educational spotlight is the program Listento by Audio Movers.
Product Review
In the conversation with Jeremy (Smith), he talks about Venezuelan style maracas. He recommends maracas made by Jorge Carrero. He has a company called JC Maracas. You can also see other options on the Instagram page. Jorge will adjust to your taste and requirement. National and international shipments.
For orders, contact us WhatsApp: *+584245397907*
Iconic Recording
There is a list of about 15 Sambas worth checking out in this article. Damon also mentioned the Sergio Mendes album Brasileiro.
Music News
Bandcamp Fridays started back in March to support artists impacted by the pandemic, and in the past few months the music community has come together in a huge way: in just four days, fans put more than $20 million directly into the pockets of artists and labels. -Article
GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. GivingTuesday was born and incubated at the 92nd Street Y and its Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact in New York City. GivingTuesday is now an independent nonprofit and a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.
Whether it’s making someone smile, helping a neighbor or stranger out, showing up for an issue or people we care about, or giving some of what we have to those who need our help, every act of generosity counts, and everyone has something to give. -Website
The global pandemic has created acute financial distress for the over 2000 freelance musicians who make their living playing music in New England. Due to the “gig” nature of freelance work, when the halls went dark on March 13, freelancers were left—overnight—with no regular income, few benefits, and for many, no qualified unemployment insurance, even under the emergency CARES Act. NEMRF was created in 2020 as a nonprofit philanthropy to help New England musicians weather this Covid-19 shutdown of the music industry, and create an endowment that will go on to provide a safety net for years and decades to come. -Website
Music Covid Relief a resource brought to you by partners in the U.S. Music Community to help music professionals access information and applications to receive benefits made available by the CARES Act (Phase III of the Coronavirus Stimulus bill signed into law March 27, 2020) and the “Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act” signed into law on April 24, 2020. The website will be continually updated as we receive information. Please keep checking back for more state by state information as it becomes available. -Website
The Kennedy Center has postponed all events until April 2021. You can check out more details and the other information offered by going to the website.
Jeremy Smith Interview
Jeremy was born in Pasadena, but grew up in the Knoxville, TN area. Jeremy’s father played french horn and relocated after getting a teaching job at the University of TN. Friend of the show Dr. Andy Bliss now teaches there.
Damon brings up the iconic sections of Star Wars music that features the french horn. Jeremy talks about how his dad recorded for Star Trek, but not Star Wars.
Jeremy had a Mickey Mouse drumset as his first foray into music.
Jeremy’s first teacher was Keith Brown, a friend of his dad’s at the University.
The international music camp is where Jeremy would go in the summers. He also started to dive deeper into classical music in middle and high school as well as the marching drumline situation.
Bob Adamcik was another teacher for Jeremy on his progression through his classical studies as well as Mark Douglass.
After high school, Jeremy attended the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) and then switching to The Juilliard School. He switched to Juilliard for the wealth of musical opportunities in NYC.
Before heading to college, Jeremy participated in a bit of Scottish drumming.
While still in high school, Jeremy attended the Juilliard Summer Percussion Seminar. He was introduced to the pandeiro there. He studied with Gordon Gottleib in both the seminar and also as a student at Juilliard.
Damon and Jeremy talk about technology advancements like YouTube, Myspace and Facebook.
Before transferring to Juilliard, still in Tennessee, Jeremy got into playing Kanjira.
Shout-out to Vic Firth for the educational content that they post.
Jeremy started his kanjira adventure by purchasing one from Remo, and taking a lesson with Ganesh Kumar. He is also studying Konnakol.
Pandeiro was the first step into frame drums for Jeremy. He started checking out Glen Velez and Shane Shanahan. Later he learned about Yshai Afterman and Zohar Fresco. After frame drums, he expanded into riqq and darbuka.
Balancing his classical studies with learning other percussion instruments of the world, he later learned about the Venezuelan maracas.
Shout-out to Mike Truesdell who helped introduce Jeremy to the maracas. Damon mentions seeing Edmar Castañeda perform on the Colombian harp with a maraca player.
Jeremy recommends checking out Juan Ernesto Laya and Manuel Alejandro Rangel.
Manuel has a course online that you can get started with learning the maracas. Start by going to his website.
In addition to the JC Maracas (mentioned above), you can also check out the Lorenzo Alvarado maracas.
While talking about Venezuelan music, Damon brings up Quitiplás, which is played by bamboo dowels of various sizes. Jeremy talks about violinist Ali Bello and the tune he has that starts with the Quitiplás.
Jeremy and Damon talk about expanding the curriculum for percussion playing in instruments and situations to play in.
Jeremy and Damon talk about serving the song, licks, transcribing and more. Jeremy mentions Itamar Doari as a source of inspiration. He remembers seeing Itamar with bassist Avishai Cohen.
If you have a song in 7 or other odd meters, Jeremy is your man to call!
Jeremy doesn’t have any endorsements (for now), but shout-out to Dem’ Sticks, Jeremy King Percussion, Léo Instrumentos Percussivos, & Stack Ring Percussion.
You can follow Jeremy on his Website, Facebook or Instagram.
The song leading out of the interview is “Hayna” by Farah Siraj.
