Jonah Smith

A kind of crazy thing happened today. I was out on the LP hunt for The Sound Cellar's Record Vault and came across a van than was all decked out in Relix, the magazine, posters and the license plate was from New York. Wondering what in the world a Relix van was doing in the middle of the corn belt, I approached the fellow that had just gotten out of the van. he proceeded to tell me about the band that he was in, Jonah Smith's band. They are on tour and on Relix Records, hence the van. Last night they played in Philly and were scheduled for a gig at Birdy's tonight. I gave him some directions to Broad Ripple where they might find a cold beer and the 1966 Fender Bass that he was looking for.

Ben Rubin was this gentleman's name and he's the bass player for Jonah Smith. After telling him about the Sound Cellar, he immediately fixed me up with a CD and I just have added two tracks from the CD to the playlist - "Both Sides" and "Little Black Angels." We've listened to the CD three times now and really enjoy it. The sequence of songs is more like listening to an album back in the days of LPs rather than a thrown together conglomeration of songs that comprise so many CDs today. And, the CD doesn't wear out its welcome and drone on and on with songs not up to snuff just to fill up the 80 minutes available. The hidden tracks are a lot of fun as well.

One thing that I really despise is "who does he sound like? Van Morrison? Dylan? et al." With that in mind, I'll just say the Jonah is an original that obviously deeply appreciates the heritage of American music. From his MySpace page: "Sounds Like a singer-songwriter that belts it out with a band that's tighter than your boss with a raise."

We're off to his gig tonight and expect that we'll experience a first rate performance, especially based upon the reviews found on his website. BTW, his website is great, it's full of information and plenty of music., and you can buy his great new CD there as well.

Here's some background taken from his website:

It’s maybe no surprise that New York-based Jonah Smith came into his own as singer/songwriter/pianist in the world’s biggest melting pot. Check in with Smith in a subterranean Downtown jazz club, sit for a while and listen to him play—his hat cocked sideways, his manner shy, his humor dry—and you’ll see that he, like New York, is a little bit of everything: a seasoned player, he’s a little bit jazz; a heartfelt vocalist, he’s definitely soul; a talented balladeer and storyteller, he’s even a little Nashville. Yet, essentially, at its essence, it’s rock and roll.

Smith’s a throwback, for sure, and there’s something very familiar about his music, but it doesn’t really sound like anything you’ve heard before. It does, however, sound very of the moment. His voice soulful and magnetic and his songs awash in the warm, distinctive tones of his Fender Rhodes, Smith writes songs that sound brand new. It’s what’s earned him rave reviews in New York and up the East Coast: “The music industry meets its future,” wrote The New York Post. Smith’s music was dubbed “striking” by The Boston Globe, and “sophisticated and soulful” by Modern Drummer. During a recent tour of Spain, La Vanguardia called Smith “one of the most important voices in modern soul music.”