Nate Smith

When the drummer Nate Smith finally won two Grammys at the start of February, the coronation seemed like an inevitable high point along the drummer’s surprising half-century journey with his kit. Smith, after all, is the rare jazz musician whose pedigree as a player is impeccable and daunting but whose ability to find crossover success also remains astounding. To wit, less than a decade ago, Smith began using social media and YouTube to post videos of his techniques, deconstructing his dizzying rhythmic sequences so people could understand them. He is something of an online star, with multiple videos having surpassed the one-million mark and his collaborations with the great Brittany Howard boosting his reputation even more. Smith’s great series of records, Pocket Change, represented his answer to his question about who he was as a drummer and composer when he was without steady collaborators such as Dave Holland and Chris Potter. A master, turns out, of using complex beats to build magnetic music.

When Smith was only 20, he stepped into something like jazz fantasy camp, performing with the great Betty Carter at the Blue Note soon before her death. He went on to record with Michael Jackson, tour with the likes of Holland and Pat Metheny, and jump beyond jazz strictures to record with Howard and Vulfpeck. LIVE-ACTION, the 2025 feat that earned him the Grammys, represents the synthesis of Smith’s relentless work. Tapping relationships he largely made through social media, Smith recruited the likes of Lalah Hathaway, säje, and Josh Johnson to create a seamless collage of R&B and jazz, hip-hop and electronica, like a mixtape masterminded by a great producer and drummer. At Big Ears, Smith performs with keyboardist Jason Lindner and bassist Tim Lefebvre, two accomplished jazz players whose résumés also include David Bowie’s final album.