Concertagenda Nate Smith

Pocket. Feel. Timing. Groove. If you want to know how these four elements can truly coincide, look no further than drummer Nate Smith. As a bandleader, composer, producer, and collaborator, he draws equally from jazz, funk, soul, and hip-hop—using the drums not merely as a rhythmic engine, but as the creative starting point for his compositions. He proved this with projects such as his 'KINFOLK’ series—earning multiple Grammy nominations—and with 'LIVE-ACTION’, released last year. On that producer-led album, Smith collaborates with a diverse group of musicians he connected with online over the past few years. As a producer, he ensure coherence through a set of almost dogmatic principles: everything played live, everything analogue, and everything begins with the groove. The results are nothing short of stunning.

Beyond his own projects, Smith has become one of the most in-demand drummer-producers of his generation, working across an impressively wide range of genres. He has collaborated with artists such as Brittany Howard, Childish Gambino, Pat Metheny, Norah Jones, Vulfpeck, Jon Batiste, and Ravi Coltrane—not as a sideman, but as a defining musical force whose sound, vision, and encyclopaedic knowledge shape the energy from within. And if you’re curious about those first four terms: Smith also runs an extensive series of online teaching videos, in which he breaks everything down into meticulous detail. Bring out those drumsticks!

For fans of: Lander Gyselinck, Makaya McCraven, Nate Wood, Vulfpeck