This 2023 release of Time Flies (out now via Wounded Bird Records) from Steve Smith & Vital Information marks the 40th anniversary of drummer Steve Smith’s group, and the new Vital Information features Manuel Valera on keyboards and Janek Gwizdala on electric bass.

Time Flies is a 60-minute, 12 track, odyssey highlighting original compositions and updated standards with special guests Mike Mainieri (vibes) on 1 song & George Garzone (sax) on 3 tracks.

Plus, the package also includes a 54-minute companion BONUS CD entitled A Prayer For The Generations!

Steve Smith’s drumming, while decidedly modern, can best be described as a style that embodies the history of U.S. music. Steve is active as a band leader (Steve Smith & Vital Information), as a featured sideman (Mike Stern Group, Zakir Hussain’s Masters of Percussion, Steps Ahead, Hiromi-The Trio Project), and as an educator/clinician.

1. Emergence
2. Tempus Fugue-It
3. Time Flies
4. Darn That Dream
5. Un Poco Loco
6. Self Portrait
7. Inception
8. Choreography in Six
9. No Qualm
10. Ugly Beauty
11. What Is This Thing Called Love
12. Erdnase
13. One Down, One Up

Bonus CD:
14. A Prayer for the Generations (Parts 1-8)

On what is a most exhilarating and beautifully varied plethora of musical sculptures, first up we get the shimmering Emergence and the skedaddling Tempus Fugue-It, before we are granted access to listen to the more forthright, titular Time Flies, and that is backed by the free flowing Darn That Dream, the quietly fervent Un Poco Loco and the lad back, front porch resting Self Portrait.

Along next is one of my own personal favorites from this simply sumptuous new recording, the drum-led freneticism of Inception which is itself backed by the mid-tempo soiree of Choreography in Six, the glistening No Qualm, and then comes the organically sculpted Ugly Beauty, the vibrant What Is This Thing Called Love, the album rounding out on the soulful Erdnase, closing on the all-encompassing One Down, One Up. [A Bonus CD entitled A Prayer for the Generations (Parts 1-8), and recorded in December of 2022, is also included].

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