Home » Jazz Musicians » Pete Smith

Pete Smith

Pete Smith is a New York City-based guitarist who performs in a wide range of musical settings. As a founding member of Grupo los Santos, a vanguard Afro-Cuban and Brazilian-style quartet, he has played New York’s Town Hall and concerts throughout the U.S., Cuba & Austria. He has performed at the Berlin Jazz Festival and Montreal Jazz Festival, as well as concerts in thirty countries throughout Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. He has worked with Norah Jones, trumpeter Donald Byrd, Cuban trombone master Juan Pablo Torres, Andrew Hill, Kat Edmonson, Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks, the Moonlighters, Madeline Peyroux, Natalie Merchant and Huun-Huur-Tu, and is a member of Michael Feinstein’s Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. In 2023 he traveled to Congo-Kinshasa as a member of the band Opius Bliss--as representatives of the US Embassy--cultural ambassadors--to perform for and teach, play and dialogue with local musicians in Kinshasa and Kisangani. 2023 also saw the release of GLS's 4th album "Santos 4".  Pete will be recording a new album with bassist Sean Smith (The Smith Duo) in 2024.

Gear

1977 Gibson Byrdland

1967 Fender Princeton


Tags

315
Album Review

Grupo Los Santos: Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea

Read "Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea" reviewed by Michael P. Gladstone


A spirited group of Latin jazz players called Grupos Los Santos offers its brand of music on Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea, which translates to What We Are What Will Be . The title of the group could also be loosely translated to mean that they are not playing a singular type of music but bring in many elements, tempo and cultural diversities.

When “Rumba in the Bronx" begins, it is with a percussive rumba ...

157
Album Review

Grupo Los Santos: Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea

Read "Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes


Grupo Los Santos is a New York-based group that successfully looks at Latin and Brazilian jazz from an American point of view. The result is a mixed sonic bag that allows influences from funk and East Coast jazz into the music without compromising the general sound and feel. At their CD release concert at New York's The Jazz Standard in January, 2008, they opened with “Boogie Down Broder," a tune by saxophonist Paul Carlon dedicated to the ...

221
Album Review

Grupo Los Santos: Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea

Read "Lo Que Somos Lo Que Sea" reviewed by David Miller


Grupo Los Santos is a unique band. Its music is Latin through and through, and yet the musicians come from varying backgrounds. Guitarist Pete Smith has played with Norah Jones, Donald Byrd and Andrew Hill; bassist Dave Ambrosio has recorded with Uzbek and Kyrgyz folk musicians; saxophonist Paul Carlon leads his own band, playing everything from straight-ahead jazz to funk; and drummer William “Beaver" Bausch rounds out the core quartet, and is probably the most experienced in Latin musics. What ...

Read more articles

"and Smith, the guitarist, snapping out parts as if he were in the James Brown band. There's rock in Smith's playing too, but it's not a default position; at times he sounds like Bill Frisell, or James Blood Ulmer, modern, thoughtful, different." - Peter Watrous

"The deepest moment was his (Michael Feinstein's) contemplative “Time in a Bottle,” a duet with the guitarist Pete Smith." - Stephen Holden, NYTimes

"Grupo Los Santos’ album Santos 4 has so much feeling so much soul! It is a voyage, a transforming experience! A juice made with a lot of talent!" - Cyro Baptista

Photos

Music

Future Homage

From: Clave Heart
By Pete Smith

Entre Dongan Y Adren

From: Clave Heart
By Pete Smith

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.