While drumming with his group Journey, Steve Smith  toured around the world and recorded many successful albums including the immensely popular “Escape” (columbia 1981) and “Frontiers” (columbia 1983), both of which garnered the band many Top 40 hits.  Smith’s inventive timekeeping, stadium sized tom-tom fills and deep sense of the groove enabled him to produce some of the most critically acclaimed rock drumming while at the same time propelling the band to much popular success. The Journey catalogue has sold over 50 million records.
Smith began leading his own fusion band Steve Smith and Vital information in 1983 while still a member of Journey and has released a large body of recordings with this group over the last two decades. In 1998, Smith began producing and playing on a series of driving electric jazz albums for the Tone center label with a revolving cast of talented players such as dave liebman, Frank gambale, Stu Hamm, Tom coster, larry coryell, Jerry goodman, Howard levy, Steve marcus, Scott Henderson and Victor wooten. Regarding this exciting body of Steve Smith’s work, the modern drummer magazine’s Hall of famer said, “when i was 12 years old and started listening to the amazing Buddy rich i bought some recently released compilations of his earlier work, which to me was all new music. It made me aware of his extensive body of work and as a result i dug deeper into Buddy’s catalogue. I hope that my Tone center ‘Best Of’ collection serves to introduce my playing to a new generation of music fans who have currently become interested in high-level musicianship, challenging compositions, virtuosic playing and spontaneous, interactive communication between musicians”.
Steve Smith presents an electrifying collection of some of his favorite tracks taken from the 14 albums that he played on and produced for the Tone center label. This collection features incendiary playing from a diverse cast of stellar musicians: Scott Henderson, Victor Wooten, Frank Gambale, Stu Hamm, Larry Coryell, Tom Coster, Jerry Goodman, Howard Levy, Oteil Burbridge, Steve Marcus, Andy Fusco, Anthony Jackson, Kai Eckhardt, Baron Browne, Mark Soskin, Aydin Esen and David Liebman.
Enjoy the music!