Ches Smith

Percussionist, drummer, and composer Ches Smith is a forward-thinking, genre-bending musician with a bent toward experimental and avant-garde improvisation and Haitian and Caribbean folkloric traditions. Initially a replacement touring musician with Mr. Bungle in the mid-'90s, Smith soon established himself as a first-call collaborator with artists that included Xiu Xiu, John Zorn, and Mary Halvorson, among others. He has issued inventive albums under his own name including 2010's Finally Out of My Hands, the 2012 solo percussion outing Psycho Predictions, and his ECM debut, The Bell, in 2016. The following year, he and his Haitian jazz project We All Break digitally issued their self-titled debut. After signing the group to Kris Davis' Pyroclastic Records, he doubled the band's size to include saxophonist Miguel Zenon and vocalist Sirene Dantor Rene, among others, and released Path of Seven Colors in 2021.