Ches Smith

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American musician

title: "Ches Smith" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-rock-drummers", "american-jazz-drummers", "american-percussionists", "american-vibraphonists", "living-people", "year-of-birth-missing-(living-people)", "trevor-dunn's-trio-convulsant-members", "good-for-cows-members", "xiu-xiu-members", "american-male-drummers", "drummers-from-san-diego"] description: "American musician" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ches_Smith" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American musician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

FieldValue
nameChes Smith
imageches-smith.jpg
birth_nameGordon McChesney Smith
birth_date
birth_placeSan Diego, California, United States
death_date
originSacramento, California, United States
instrument
genre
occupationMusician
website
::

| name = Ches Smith | image = ches-smith.jpg | caption = | image_size = | birth_name = Gordon McChesney Smith | birth_date = | birth_place = San Diego, California, United States | death_date = | death_place = | origin = Sacramento, California, United States | instrument = | genre = | occupation = Musician | years_active = | label = | website =

Ches Smith is an American musician, whose primary instruments are drums, percussion, and vibraphone.

He recorded and performed an album of his own solo percussion pieces entitled Congs for Brums (2006). In 2010 he released Noise to Men.

Biography

Smith was born in San Diego, California, and raised in Sacramento. After studying philosophy at the University of Oregon, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1995. He studied composition, improvisation and percussion with Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros, William Winant and Alvin Curran. In 1999, he toured with Mr. Bungle.

Discography

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/ches-smith01.jpg" caption="Ches Smith."] ::

As leader/co-leader

  • 2006 – Congs for Brums (Free Porcupine Society)
  • 2010 – Noise to Men (Self Released) & Congs for Brums
  • 2010 – Finally Out of My Hands (Skirl) & These Arches
  • 2012 – Psycho Predictions (Figure Eight Records) & Congs for Brums
  • 2013 – Hammered (Clean Feed) & These Arches
  • 2014 – International Hoohah (ForTune) & These Arches
  • 2016 – The Bell (ECM) Trio w Craig Taborn, Mat Maneri
  • 2018 – A Complete and Tonal Disaster (Self Released) & Congs for Brums
  • 2021 – Path of Seven Colors (Pyroclastic) & We All Break
  • 2022 – Interpret It Well (Pyroclastic)
  • 2024 – Laugh Ash (Pyroclastic)
  • 2025 – Clone Row (Otherly Love Records)

As sideman

;with Tim Berne

;with Trevor Dunn's trio-convulsant

;with Mary Halvorson

  • 2008 - Dragon's Head
  • 2010 - Saturn Sings
  • 2012 - Bending Bridges
  • 2013 - Illusionary Sea
  • 2013 - Ghost Loop
  • 2016 - Away With You

;with Moe! Staiano

  • 2001 – The Lateness of Yearly Presentations

;with Moe! Staiano's Moe!kestra!

  • 2006 – An Inescapable Siren Within Earshot Distance Therein and Other Whereabouts
  • 2007 – Two Rooms of Uranium Inside 83 Markers

;with Graham Connah

  • 2001 – The Only Song We Know

;with Good For Cows

  • 2001 – Good for Cows
  • 2003 – Cows Less Than or Equal To
  • 2004 – Bebop Fantasy
  • 2008 – 10th Concert Anniversary
  • 2010 – Audumla

;with Theory Of Ruin

  • 2002 – Counter–Culture Nosebleed
  • 2003 – Frontline Posterchild

;with Mitch Marcus Quintet

  • 2002 – Entropious

;with Lou Harrison

  • 2003 – Drums Along the Pacific

;with John Zorn

  • 2003 – Voices in the Wilderness (Tzadik)
  • 2016 – The Painted Bird (Tzadik)
  • 2018 – The Urmuz Epigrams (Tzadik)
  • 2018 – In a Convex Mirror (Tzadik)
  • 2020 – Les Maudits (Tzadik)
  • 2021 – Heaven and Earth Magick (Tzadik)
  • 2022 – Incerto (Tzadik)
  • 2022 – Suite For Piano (Tzadik)

;with Xiu Xiu

;with David Torn

  • 2019 – Sun Of Goldfinger (ECM)
  • 2020 – Sun Of Goldfinger (Congratulations to You) (Screwgun)
  • 2022 - Ozmir (Screwgun)

;with Secret Chiefs 3

;with Aaron Novik

  • 2004 – Gubbish: Notations in Tonations
  • 2006 – Kipple: Flashes of Irrational Happiness

;with Redressers

  • 2004 – To Each According...

;with Carla Bozulich/Evangelista

  • 2009 – Prince of Truth
  • 2011 – In Animal Tongue
  • 2014 – I'm Gonna Stop Killing

;with Will Bernard Trio

  • 2005 – Directions to My House

;with Fever Pitch

  • 2005 – Just Drums 2 Project

;with Sean Hayes

  • 2006 – Big Black Hole and the Little Baby Star

;with Todd Sickafoose

  • 2006 – Blood Orange

;with Ben Goldberg Quintet

  • 2006 – The Door, the Hat, the Chair, the Fact

;with 7 Year Rabbit Cycle

  • 2006 – Ache Horns

;with Fred Frith, Darren Johnston, Devin Hoff and Larry Ochs

  • 2007 – Reason to Move

;with Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog

;with Leonid Fedorov, Vladimir Volkov, John Medeski, Marc Ribot

;with Dave Holland

;with Moonface

  • 2018 – This One's for the Dancer & This One's for the Dancer's Bouquet

References

References

  1. Wetzel, Florence. (2006-11-18). "CD/LP Review: Congs for Brums". All About Jazz.
  2. "Congs For Brums Noise to Men".
  3. "Ches Smith bio".
  4. (July 18, 2019). "A series of interviews about Mr. Bungle's 'California' PART 2".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

american-rock-drummersamerican-jazz-drummersamerican-percussionistsamerican-vibraphonistsliving-peopleyear-of-birth-missing-(living-people)trevor-dunn's-trio-convulsant-membersgood-for-cows-membersxiu-xiu-membersamerican-male-drummersdrummers-from-san-diego