Ed Smith

Staff Musician, Vibraphone

Ed Smith's music career as a jazz vibraphonist and percussionist spans more than three decades. He has performed with distinguished artists such as John Cage, Phil Wilson, Eric Sammut, Louie Bellson, Johnny Mathis, Glen Velez, Trichy Sankaran, Nyoman Wenten, Hands On’Semble and many others. Recently, Ed was endorsed by the instrument manufacture, Malletech, and has introduced their revolutionary vibraphone to Europe at the Italian Percussive Arts Society “Days of Percussion” in Fermo, Italy. In April of 2010 he performed on it at Juilliard, Rutgers and William Paterson University. Malletech also manufactures Ed’s signature vibe mallets.

In 1992 Ed helped form the internationally recognized world percussion group, D'Drum, which has been voted Best Percussion Ensemble in Drum! magazine's 2010 Readers Poll. The group recorded the soundtrack for the National Geographic Film Lions of Darkness and performed in Hong Kong as part of the Chinese modern presentation of Mozart's The Magic Flute. A PBS short film about the group and their world travels won an Emmy in 1999. Their first CD Village Besides Time is critically acclaimed, and their second CD released in the spring of 2006 Within You Without You features Ed’s arrangements and lyrical vibes on the title song. D’Drum has been a featured concert act at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC). Currently the group is collaborating with Stewart Copeland (drummer/founder of The Police) on a world music concerto commissioned by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and it will have its world premiere Feb. 3-5, 2011.

Ed began traveling to Bali, Indonesia in 1995 to study the music of wayang kulit (shadow puppet play) on gender wayang. The unusual contrapuntal techniques used on this bronze metallophone have been a great inspiration to his solo vibe compositions and improvisations. While in Bali in 1998, Ed was awarded the high honor of performing on the gender wayang with his teacher, Ketut Madri, in a temple celebration. Since 2002 Ed has also been studying the repertoire of the large Balinese gamelan, gong kebyar.

Ed composes and performs with the cross-cultural jazz-fusion group, Brahmah, including world-renowned musicians Poovalur Sriji on mridangam, Jamal Mohamed on doumbek and Fred Hamilton on guitar. Their first CD Brahmah was released in 2005.

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