STEVE SMITH AND VITAL INFORMATION

Featuring Steve Smith (drums) Manuel Valera (keyboards) Janek Gwizdala (electric bass)

Drummer Steve Smith has been touring and recording with his group Vital Information since 1983. In 2023 Steve Smith celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Vital Information by releasing a newly recorded double CD entitled TIME FLIES.

In 2025 the group is releasing their latest studio recording, NEW PERSPECTIVE. The album features songs that Steve Smith has previously recorded but with arrangements that are vastly different from the original recordings. Included on NEW PERSPECTIVE are three Journey songs, “Who’s Crying Now,” Open Arms” and “Don’t Stop Believin,’” a Steps Ahead tune written by Michael Brecker called “Sumo,” and three Vital Information classics that have been reworked: “The Perfect Date,” “Charukeshi Express” and “Eight+Five.” There are also two new original compositions. The album will be released Spring 2025.

The newest line-up of Vital Information features two virtuoso musicians with wide-ranging experience. Keyboardist Manuel Valera, is a Guggenheim Fellow and Grammy nominated artist, born and raised in Havana, Cuba, now living in NYC. Manuel plays and records with many of the New York jazz elite like Antonio Sanchez, Dafnis Prieto and John Patitucci.

Electric bassist Janek Gwizdala, originally from London, currently living in Los Angeles, records and tours with Peter Erskine, Mike Stern and Randy Brecker and is one of today’s most in- demand bass players. Both new members of Vital Information are bandleaders, in their own right, and recording artists with multiple recordings to their names.

The new trio version of Steve Smith and Vital Information collectively creates a powerhouse sound. Although the band is rooted in the straight-ahead swing of bebop, at times the group explores exotic time-signatures from the world of South Indian Carnatic music and have arranged adventurous funk-driven renditions of jazz standards. Seeing Steve Smith and Vital Information live in concert is a perfect opportunity to experience their high-level musicianship, sense of joy onstage and collective virtuosic improvisation.

Steve Smith had this to say about Vital Information’s philosophy:

“Our music allows for individual expression and re-invention. We thrive on swing, groove and creativity. We want to surprise each other every night on the bandstand with new ideas and in the process keep our audience ‘in the moment’ with us.”

In 2022 Wounded Bird Records released Steve Smith and Vital Information: The Complete Columbia Recordings, a four CD set combining the first four Vital Information albums into one package. Steve Smith, the former drummer for the iconic rock band Journey, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and has won numerous Modern Drummer Readers Polls including being named one of the Top 25 Drummers of All Time. On September 20, 2023 Steve Smith was inducted into the Zildjian Cymbal Hall of Fame as part of the Zildjian 400th Anniversary celebration.