Peter Smith’s new jazz album “Smitty Straightens Out” (featuring Roy McCurdy) will release on all platforms April 11, 2025
The latest venture from Peter Smith focusses on “Soul Jazz:” straight, funky grooves harkening back to the great Jazz records of the early-mid 1960s. This is infectious music to get your feet tapping, invoking classic recordings like “Cornbread” by Lee Morgan and “Una Mas” by Kenny Dorham.
This music has a special, funky feeling to it, possessed of insistent rhythms (but not too insistent) and fretted with a light touch (but not delicate). These popular “straight grooves” strip away the flighty catch of swing: less antic and ebullient, more chewy and groovy; less eager to please, more assured and insouciant. They are the smoke in the sauce, the corn in the muffin, the dirt in the martini …
When you walk down the street with this pocketful of rhythm, you can hear a lot of coins jingling in there. The inexorable beats provide a home from which melodies can range and ramble, emotions can be explored rather than framed, and laid-back, be-right-there voicings of horns alchemize to give us the indomitable fusion of two of the greatest words in the English language: Soul Jazz.
Peter Smith (piano/leader/composer) released is trio album “Dollar Dreams” in 2023 (also produced by Dante Polichetti). He has toured the world as music director for Molly Ringwald, and also fills that role for Keith David and Ty Taylor. Peter now presents concerts in his studio space where this album was recorded, and performs there with friends like Ralph Moore, Benny Benack, Joe LaBarbara, Graham Dechter, Clayton Cameron, Michael Carvin, and many others.
Roy McCurdy (drums) hopefully need no introduction, but at 87 years young, legendary Roy “sturdy” McCurdy was instrumental in the bands of Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson, Chuck Mangione, and countless others.
Rickey Woodard (tenor sax) spent his early years in the Ray Charles band, and has also played with Horace Silver, Milt Jackson, Diana Krall, and countless others. He is currently in the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz orchestra, and is one of the first-call players in Los Angeles.
Trevor Ware (bass) has been holding the bass chair down in the Count Basie Orchestra for many years now, and he also was part of Molly Ringwald’s band for years (led by Peter). He is a top Los Angeles player who cut his teeth with Horace Tapscott, Pharaoh Sanders, Billy Higgins, and Dwight Trible.
Aaron Janik (trumpet) is the young lion in the group, tearing it up with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. Patrice Rushen, Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, Earth Wind and Fire, Chaka Khan, and many more. A top session player in LA, he recently performed in the band for the 2025 Academy Awards.
1. Road Song (Wes Montgomery) 5:07
2. Smitty Straightens Out 6:22
3. Timing Rules the World 5:31
4. Tumbling Down 5:27
5. As They Grow 4:21
6. Swagger Waggle 5:43
7. Until Next Time 2:03
All Compositions by Peter Smith except for track 1.