Walter Smith III Quintet

Thu, Apr 04

*PLEASE NOTE: All 7PM and 9PM shows at Smoke are Dinner Shows Walter Smith III – tenor saxophone Matt Stevens – guitar Brad Mehldau – piano Harish Raghavan – bass Kendrick Scott – drums “A tenor sax player for our times.” 
– The Guardian Tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III makes his highly anticipated Smoke debut , leading an impressive quintet with pianist Brad Mehldau, guitarist Matt Stevens, bassist Harish Raghavan, and fellow Houston native drummer Kendrick Scott. Since his arrival almost 20 years ago, Smith has been a key figure and performer who has been a member of several legendary groups, including the Roy Haynes’ Fountain of Youth Band, the Terence Blanchard Quintet, Eric Harland’s Voyager, the Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet, as well as groups with Jason Moran, Christian McBride, Gerald Clayton, and Sean Jones Quintet to name a few. JazzWise reports, “Walter Smith III expresses his deep modern jazz roots with an airy tenor sax tone and a ferocious but understated technique,” while Downbeat adds, “His tone and melodicism are just killing with a flow of ideas that’s vast and beautiful.”