Neal Smith

An adept jazz drummer and educator, Neal Smith is known for his hard-swinging approach to acoustic post-bop. He emerged in the 2000s playing with Brian Lynch and Cyrus Chestnut before founding his own NAS label and releasing albums like 2005's Swingin' Is Believin'. A quintet album, Live at Smalls, arrived in 2010. He was awarded the Grammy for Best Classical Compendium for his contributions to 2023's Passion for Bach and Coltrane by Jeff Scott.