Ray Smith Quintet: Jazz at the Viridian Center

Ray Smith Quintet: jazz at the Viridian Center

Sax player, arranger, studio musician and globe trotting band leader, Ray Smith, brings his quintet to the Viridian Center. The line up includes, Ray on a variety of woodwinds, Emily Merrell on vocals, Steve Lindeman on keyboards, Matt Larson on bass, and Rob Brough on drums.

Ray Smith is one of those relatively rare individuals who is an excellent performer and an excellent teacher at the same time. Currently, he teaches at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah as the Director of Jazz Studies and Professor of Saxophone. His jazz big band, Synthesis, has received national and international recognition by winning many jazz festival competitions such as the Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz Festival, the LionelHamption Jazz Festival, and those sponsored by the International Association for Jazz Education and the Jazz Education Network; performing in some of the great international jazz festivals such as The Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland, and the Antibes Jazz Festival on the French Riviera, The Riga Jazz Festival in Latvia, The Pori Jazz Festival in Finland, The Kongsberg Jazz Festival in Norway, and The Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy, the Edinburgh Jazz Festival in Scotland, the Copenhagen Jazz Festival in Denmark, the Wigan and Birmingham Jazz Festivals in England, the San Sebastian Jazz Festival in Spain, the Loule Jazz Festival in Portugal, to name a few; and has toured Japan and China, not to mention blazing new trails into Siberia in 1998. Most recently the band toured Brazil.  Synthesis was named the top university jazz band in the country in 2013 in the Downbeat Student Music Awards.  Ray has also performed at the World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok, Thailand and in St. Andrews, Scotland and has done a residency at the University of Manila in the Philippines.