Steve Smith

I want to see vital information at the Blue Note.

Steve Smith's vital information.

If you guys didn't know Steve Smith, he was a drummer for Journey for many years.

The guy that recorded Don't Stop Believing and...

Also, we're going to recap the New York Salsa All-Stars happening next Saturday with Germán Oliveira and Frankie Vasquez and Ray de la Paz.

Nope, nope, nope.

All right.

So Friday night, as I mentioned, I went to see the legendary Steve Smith's Vital Information at Berlin.

Ansley Dunbar, yeah.

You had Steve Smith.

You have Mike Baird.

You have Dean Castronova.

Yeah.

And he's interviewing me and Angie Various, who was the drummer in the Prime Band when I played in the band, along with Johnny Burns, who's Jethro Burns' son, and the late Tom Pekarski, everyone of whom is Pickles, Pickles Pekarski.

And this will be the first time I have seen Angie in decades.

Wow.

I tried bass.

Oh, I can play a little bit of bass.

And then the drummer in the band learned harmonica.

And we had gone to hear Paul Butterfield and James Cotton because New York didn't have a big blues scene.

mean, it's not incredibly complex, but the way I'm sort of putting it together and arranging it and trying to get the parts together, trying to make it make sense for my instrument is posing some challenges.

So... it's a great way to, I think, to challenge myself to come back to the instrument after a little bit of time off and not to, not to necessarily start raising the anxiety levels about the music that I have to play next week, for instance, heading to New York, um, for a weekend at Birdland with Steve Smith, vital information music.

I'm familiar with musicians I love and have played many dozens, if not hundreds of shows with at this, at this point.

Um, but it's really easy to sort of start to ramp up the anxiety and they're like, Oh, and this is this complicated thing.

[laughs]

Did you know? It is the birthday of Steve Smith of Journey, born on this day in 1954.

Yeah, the drummer.

He's sick, dude.

Steve Perry, Neil Sean, big melodies, big choruses.

But this time, I want you to follow Steve Smith.

The easiest way for me to describe a drummer is he keeps time.

True, but incomplete.

The song didn't change, but the emotional size of the moment did.

Now let's talk about space and this may be my favorite part.

Listen to what Steve Smith doesn't play.

Because good musicianship isn't always adding.

So I wanted him to try to get together with Jonathan Cain and Neil Schoen and Ross Valerie and...

Steve Smith? Was he still

there? And Steve Smith, yeah.

And I thought they should have one more chance because the records were...

They were so talented.