steve smith journey drum set

In 2005 Steve got an the invitation to be first drumset artist to perform at Zakir Hussain’s annual concert in Mumbai, India called Homage to Abbaji, a concert dedicated to the memory of Zakir’s father and tabla guru, Allahrakha. 2009 Steve played at Carnegie Hall in NYC with a special quartet version of Zakir Hussain’s Masters of Percussion that also featured “Vikku” Vinayakram and Giovanni Hidalgo. A year later The Raga Bop Trio featuring Prasanna, George Brooks and Smith released an album on the Abstract Logix label and toured extensively. In 2011 & 2012 Steve has been touring with the virtuosic jazz pianist Hiromi as a member of her “Trio Project” . They also featured Anthony Jackson on bass.

As a drummer, Steve Smith has worked for, and with, the best. He is consistently pushing the boundaries of creative drumming and constantly expanding his strong musical voice at the top of the international drumming community. As an educator, Smith is both the eternal student and perpetual teacher of the drums. His highly lauded, recently released educational DVDs The Art Of Playing With Brushes and Drum Legacy -Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants, are state of the art showcases of his playing and teaching skills. He is one of the few drummer/bandleaders who continues to bring world-class bands to all corners of the globe with a tireless regime of live performances.

Check out Steve's SQ² setup in our 3D configurator:  https://sq2-drumsystem.com/share/zqxqp59876

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• November 6, 1981 Setlist

Journey Setlist at The Summit, Houston, TX, USA

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Tour: Escape Tour statistics Add setlist

• Escape Play Video
• Line of Fire Play Video
• Lights / Stay Awhile Play Video
• Open Arms Play Video
• Mother, Father Play Video
• Piano Solo Play Video
• Who's Crying Now Play Video
• Where Were You Play Video
• Steve Smith Drum Solo Play Video
• Dead or Alive Play Video
• Don't Stop Believin' Play Video
• Stone in Love Play Video
• Keep On Runnin' Play Video
• Guitar Solo Play Video
• Wheel in the Sky Play Video
• Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' Play Video
• Any Way You Want It Play Video

Edits and Comments

19 activities (last edit by ExecutiveChimp , 2 Jul 2023, 03:36 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Dead or Alive
• Don't Stop Believin'
• Keep On Runnin'
• Mother, Father
• Stone in Love
• Who's Crying Now
• Any Way You Want It
• Line of Fire
• Where Were You
• Guitar Solo
• Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'
• Wheel in the Sky
• Steve Smith Drum Solo
• Lights / Stay Awhile

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Journey’s Steve Smith on his amazing journey from jazz to rock

Steve Smith  played New York’s Madison Square Garden during his first return dates with his old partners in the classic 1980s rock band Journey.  Revisiting his rock star role after half a lifetime. Steve explains, “They’ve been asking me to do it for a long time and at this point I am 61 years old and still in good enough shape. I figured I’d better do it now and not wait a few more years!”

It’s always been a great story. one of the leading jazz and fusion drummers of the modern era was once an integral member of the Don’t Stop Believin’ arena-filling power-balladeers. Journey was a prime mover in the era that spawned Boston, Foreigner, Toto and Van Halen. All bands with post-Robert Plant constricted-trousered vocalists, backed by musicians several cuts above the average rocker. Journey’s Steve Perry was arguably the best singer of his generation, with his pure soaring vocals, dubbed ‘the Voice’ by Jon Bon Jovi.

Guitarist Neal Schon with Jonathan Cain [keyboards] and Ross Valory [bass] kept Journey going with replacement singers struggling to fill the void created by Perry leaving in 1987. Since 2007, Arnel Pineda, a YouTube sensation discovery, has admirably occupied Perry’s shoes. Steve Smith departed a couple of years before Steve Perry, having played on most of their greatest hits. He did revisit Journey briefly a decade later for Trial By Fire, but now Steve Smith is back with Journey.

Although a Berklee alumnus, already highly trained and in thrall to jazz, Smith found himself in an intriguing situation in September 1978. Aged 24 he was touring with guitarist Ronnie Montrose supporting Journey when they asked him to join, replacing the UK’s Aynsley Dunbar.

For almost seven years Steve lived the major-league rock star’s life, playing on multi-platinum albums and touring 50,000-seater arenas. Even better, the band was a collective and Steve was cut into the writing. However, he always knew his heart and destiny lay in jazz and in 1985 ‘musical differences’ led to the drummer’s exit. By now he had the ability and reputation to pursue the career he always intended.

In this he may be unique. Other great jazz-fusion drummers like Steve Gadd and Vinnie Colaiuta combine top jazz gigs with major rock tours, but as sidemen rather than actual band members. “So it is pretty unique, my place in all of this!” Steve muses with a laugh. “But I still have a lot of jazz gigs booked this next year and I don’t intend to give that up. Right now I’m in Germany recording with Steps Ahead and the WDR big band. Michael Abene has written 10 great charts of Steps Ahead tunes – and the whole band is here with Tom Kennedy [bass], chuck Loeb [guitar], Bill Evans [sax] and Mike Mainieri [vibes]. We recorded an album over the last three days and we’re going to play some jazz festivals in Germany this week.”

Journey Revisited

It seems Steve has more on than ever. And yet here he is devoting the summer to rock touring. So, Steve, an explanation please…

“Well, for years I have been getting calls to see if I was interested in coming back. And I really was not, because I have a complete career as a band leader and featured side-man. I was not going to stop that to become a full-time member of Journey, which is what they were asking. Creatively, it’s interesting for me to visit, but it would not be satisfying long-term.

“So I’ve always said no. But last June, 2015, a unique opportunity came along when long-time drummer Deen Castronovo was let go because of personal problems. So they asked me and I was on tour with mike stern – essentially I had a whole year of bookings. So I said what if I tour next summer?

“But because they do two-year cycles – one year heavy touring and a second of lighter touring – we agreed I would make a two-year commitment. so 2016 is heavy and 2017 less so.”

‘Heavy’ is an understatement. Steve is looking at 55 dates by September and admits, “I haven’t toured like that since the last time I toured with Journey – and that was 32 years ago!” As the drummer on most of Journey’s biggest hits, fans will relish hearing him recreate those archetypal parts. However, he admits, “I didn’t remember the original parts I played at all. So I went back and wrote detailed transcriptions – I figured it would be best to hit ‘reset’!

“My approach is to play the tunes the way they sound best, adhering to what we did on the original recordings as a solid starting point. So I learned it all verbatim and practised a lot to memorise it. That is a key part of making the music work. When we played those tunes live in the 1980s we played them faster than the original recordings.

“That happens over time when you get a little tired of playing the same tunes every night, so you make them more exciting by playing them a little faster. That is one reason. The other is that Steve Perry wanted us to play them faster so he didn’t have to hold those [unfeasibly high vocal] notes so long! But now the group has got into the habit of playing the tunes very close to the original tempos, so they actually sound bigger, more majestic.”

Looking back at 1980s live videos, Steve was really walloping the kit. “I was playing pretty loud back then, hitting the drums hard, holding the sticks way at the back end – not really a good fulcrum, not getting a nice balance.”

Today Steve’s advanced technical skills compensate for all that youthful energy. In fact he’s been working on his left-hand matched grip and has a book/DVD out, Pathways Of Motion.

“It has absolutely helped me do a better job with Journey. I have lots more options of how to play the songs with open-handed and matched grip playing. And then I still use traditional a lot. I used traditional grip back then, but it is a lot better now. I am getting a full sound and as much energy as I need without hurting myself or beating up the kit. I don’t dent heads or break sticks.

“I came to rehearsals with my Sonor SQ2 kit…and they looked at it like, what’s up with the toy drumset?!” “Originally I played Don’t Stop Believin’ and a couple of other songs open-handed. But now I have learned to play all the tunes open-handed, I can play them open-handed, traditional or matched grip. I have lots of options so my hands don’t get tired and I find that by switching between them I can play a 90-plus-minute set and feel fine, with no adverse effects.”

Another big change is the jump from double bass-drum pedal to double bass-drums. “I originally came to rehearsals with my Sonor SQ2 kit I have been using for 10 years, with a single bass drum, three rack toms and two floors and they looked at it like, what’s up with the toy drumset?! Whereas in the jazz world that is a big drumset.

“So I said alright, I guess I need the obligatory double bass-drums. And actually it was an easy adjustment. I like the feel of the two bass drums, the angle of the pedals. I like to sit at the drums in the most natural way and have a bit of an angle with both feet. with the single bass drum straight-on it is harder.

“I had been experimenting with three floor toms, especially playing with Hiromi and recreating the parts that Simon Phillips had recorded. I started using a third floor tom, super-low.”

There’s still the physical exertion though, coming back to stadium rock 30 years older?

“I prepared myself. I did a lot of practising before even the first rehearsal. I still have my 1980s double bass-drum set, but I hadn’t played it since then and so I practised on that a couple of hours a day. I always try to stay in good shape, but I made an extra effort. I do a lot of yoga.”

Presumably that’s now part of the modern game, if you want to keep rockin’ till you’re 80… “Yeah, well nobody thought we’d be playing rock’n’roll in our sixties and seventies, but people are doing it now! We are playing anywhere from 10 to 15,000 seaters every night. My first gig was Madison Square Garden. Our last gig is the 41,000 seater] AT&T Park in San Francisco on September 4th with Santana, the Doobie Brothers, Steve Miller and Tower of Power – a big stadium!”

The fabric of rhythm

Along with several other high profile drummers, Steve has recently collaborated with LA art collective SceneFour in producing pictures created via playing solos with lighted drumsticks in a dark room using time-lapse photography and then transferring the images onto canvas.

Somewhat incredulously, Steve says, “I recently had an art show in NYC which was fascinating for me, very novel! When I did the art project three years ago it was a standalone project, but SceneFour had the idea of making a coffee table book with the images and that seemed like a good opportunity to make a solo record.”

Ah, yes. As someone always striving to forward the art of solo drumming, here was the ideal vehicle. “I had 13 canvasses and I thought what if I dedicate a solo for each piece and include that with the book on a vinyl LP. In fact I had 14 solos so the album has seven tracks on each 23-minute side. It’s called the Fabric of Rhythm and I’m thrilled with it.”

The first time we ever saw Steve he performed Max Roach’s The Drum Also Waltzes and Billy Cobham’s Quadrant 4. On Vital information’s 2015 album Viewpoint there is an affectionate and brilliant reworking of Joe Morello’s seminal Take Five solo.

I had the good fortune to see Max Roach perform a solo concert at the San Francisco Jazz Festival and it really changed my perspective of musicality on the drumset. So it comes as no surprise when Steve reveals, “I’ve had it in mind to make a drumset solo album for years. Ever since Jack DeJohnette released Pictures in 1976 with mostly solo drumset pieces. It convinced me it could be done, even back then. Then recently Antonio Sanchez did the soundtrack for movie Birdman and I can listen to that over and over. Every one of his solos makes such a statement.”

So, of the Fabric of Rhythm, Steve says, “They are pieces I’ve been working on and playing live and I figured out how to adapt them. It was recorded in a large church Foundation Soundstage, Ashland, Oregon with no artificial reverb, just a beautiful big sound. ” You can see all the canvasses at www. stevesmithdrumart.com along with Steve’s notes on the artworks and the solos inspired by them. Although the limited edition is perhaps for minted fans, Steve says there will be a code to download the solos.

“Some of the pieces are directly inspired by the art – eg: Zen Roll is strictly a roll on a snare drum with a cymbal on the batter to get that modern electric machine sound. others are more abstract.”

The eerie Cymbalic Alchemy, for example, sees Steve, “Playing the cymbals with a stick in one hand and putting the mic right up to the cymbal edge.”

Other tracks display Steve’s phenomenal ability, but always with a musical point. Anyone who’s seen Steve live in recent years will know he’s dug deeply into the Indian vocal form Konnakol and is able to vocalise ever-more expressively as he accompanies himself on the kit. It confers structure and melody to his solos.

“That is becoming more of my vocabulary. I incorporated Konnakol in four of the pieces. Kinetic Dance is a really challenging one. I have worked on that a lot, so I can play those tihais [concluding rhythmic figures] any time I want while I am improvising. I came up with a piece in order to practise that idea.”

On Infinity Knot Part 1 Steve plays the rhythms of the overtone series from one through 12. “When you hear a note the overtones always follow the exact same pattern. First you hear the fundamental and then you hear an octave, which is twice as fast, and then you hear a perfect fifth above that, which is one third faster. So first you get one, and then you get two-over-one and then you get three-over-two-over- one, and the next thing you hear is a fourth above that which is actually another octave from the original fundamental, so that is four-over-three. Then I keep the three-over-two in my feet, and continue with five over that, six through to 12 and then 12 all the way back down again.”

Although it’s revealing to read the technical explanation while listening, the solo is far more melodically engaging than the cold mathematical description suggests. You wonder if Steve should, as Terry Bozzio did a few years ago, perform solo concerts with these pieces?

“Well that’s a good question. I don’t know. I have done some solo concerts, and find them fun. I had the good fortune to see Max Roach perform a solo concert at the San Francisco Jazz Festival and it really changed my perspective of musicality on the drumset.

“His solos were a big inspiration for my solos having some kind of hook and recognisable melody and rhythm. But then he took a snare drum out front and played an entire piece with brushes and then he played Mr Hi-Hat for solo hi-hat. I have done those as well, learned how to play standalone brushes and snare drum, and standalone hi-hat. and when I saw Max at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts there were a thousand people there and they loved it.”

Steve’s Gear

Drums Sonor Steve Smith SQ2 kit in White Solid Lacquer High Gloss with Black Chrome hardware:

2 x 22″x14″ bass drums with Vintage beech shells and modern bearing edges

Medium Maple toms; 3 x rack toms: 8″x7″, 10″x8″, 12″x9″; 3 x floor toms: 14″x14″, 16″x16″, 18″x16″

Three snare drums: 14″x51⁄2″ Steve Smith Signature metal; 14″x53⁄4″ Vintage beech shell and vintage bearing edges and rims with modern hardware; 12″x5″ medium maple side snare; Puresound snare wires

Cymbals Zildjian New Avedis line (l-r) 19″, 22″ with three sizzles. 15″ hi-hats, 10″ Flash Splash (new splash designed with Peter Erskine); 22″, 14″ X-Hats, 18″, 20″; White Cympad Cymbal Optimisers; 34″ Zildjian Gong

Plus Remo heads – kick: Clear Powerstroke-3 with Black Dots; main snare: FyberSkyn Diplomat batter; two additional snares: White Rough Coated Ambassador batters; tom heads: Clear Ambassador batters; Vic Firth Steve Smith Signature model sticks; DW Titanium bass drum pedals; DW hi-hat pedal; Porter & Davies drum throne; Sensaphonics 3D Active Ambient In-Ear Monitors

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Sonor Steve Smith 40th anniversary snare drum review

Celebrating the vital information and journey drumming legend’s 40th anniversary as a sonor endorsee.

• £1,184
• €1,373

MusicRadar Verdict

The price is eye-watering, but this is a limited collector’s edition, a vintage-tinged drum that acknowledges the steadfast 40 years’ support from one of the world’s most consistently great drummers.

A beautifully-built drum.

MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.

After having seen Bernard Purdie playing Sonor in 1977, Steve Smith headed out and bought himself an orange Sonor kit with twin 24" bass drums. 

He’s remained committed to the brand and, in acknowledgment of this loyalty, Sonor commemorates Steve’s 40th year with this signature snare with a limited edition of 77.  

Safely cosseted in a formidable hardcase, the drum arrives complete with Vic Firth Anniversary drumsticks and a black wood (10"x7½") box containing an authentication certificate and golden drum key. A special commemorative badge completes the drum’s exclusive look. You may have noticed the somewhat inflated price, which reflects the special, limited-edition status.

Harking back to 1977 there’s a strong vintage slant to the drum, with rounded bearing edges and eight 1970s Phonic-style ‘bow-tie’ lugs - the same lugs as on Steve’s Signature steel snare drum. 

Also in classic Sonor style, the 14"x5¾" shell is crafted from nine plies of German beech wood, just 6mm thick. This is in turn bound by a highly figured semi-gloss veneer of Mountain Burl, both outside and inside. This is an ALPI artificial eco-responsible designer finish, similar to Sonor’s other SQ2 finishes, such as Chocolate Burl. 

Close inspection reveals the shell is nigh-on flawless, although it does vary slightly in roundness. Continuing the period vibe, the engraved SuperProfil chromed-steel hoops have their stick-saving top flange folded inwards. The major concession to the modern era is the redoubtable Dual Glide strainer, butt and 24-strand Steel Sound wires.  

Beech is an underused wood and yet always impresses with its rich sound straddling the more familiar taut birch and open maple. Beech was a 1970s Sonor staple and features on the recently-reissued Vintage series. 

Contrasting with Smith’s steel signature snare, here we have a mellower, darker and more controlled character deriving from the rounded edges and slightly increased depth of the thin beech shell. Special 24-strand wires give a thick snare-y crunch to the backbeat.   

Still, the drum responds to crisp tuning. There’s a definite pop when tensioned medium high - a jazzy-funky clarity necessary for the slick execution of Smith’s rapid-fire sticking. 

Steve tells us exclusively, “I loved the sound of the Vintage snare drum that Sonor released a couple of years ago and I wanted something close to that. The rounded edges help give the snare a darker sound. Also, with eight lugs I hear more low-end because the heads keep an open feel.”

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