Steps Ahead is a legendary band that has included amazing jazz virtuosos. Steve Smith has contributed greatly to their tight, energetic sound for seven years (1986-1993 and again from 2005-present).
Steps Ahead (originally known as Steps) is a jazz fusion group and the brainchild of vibraphonist Mike Mainieri. According to the liner notes of the group's 1983 debut album (for worldwide release), entitled Steps Ahead, "Steps began as a part-time venture in 1979 at Seventh Avenue South, a New York City nightclub." The group began releasing recordings in Japan as far back as 1980.
The first line-up of Steps in the period 1979-1981, as can be read on the live album Smokin' in the Pit, consisted of Michael Brecker (tenor sax), Steve Gadd (drums), Eddie Gomez (bass), Don Grolnick (piano), Mike Mainieri (vibraphone), and special guest Kazumi Watanabe (guitar). This double live album was recorded on 15 and 16 December 1979 at The Pit Inn Tokyo.
A second studio recording was made on 17 December 1979, called Step by Step. Smokin' in the Pit was released in 1980 and awarded a gold record. The studio album Step by Step was released shortly after, followed in the summer of 1980 by another live recording called Paradox. These three albums (see Mike Manieri's notes in the booklet of the 1999 cd release of Smokin' in the Pit) were the only albums released by the group under the name of Steps. In 1982 they learned that the name Steps had been trademarked by a band in North Carolina, and therefore changed their name to Steps Ahead.
The line-up for the Steps Ahead album consisted of Mainieri, Michael Brecker (tenor sax), Eliane Elias (piano), Peter Erskine (drums), and Eddie Gomez (bass).
Other group members have included: Dennis Chambers, Warren Bernhardt, Rachel Z, Donny McCaslin, Chuck Loeb, Victor Bailey, Tony Levin, Bob Berg, Darryl Jones, Mike Stern, Richard Bona, and many others.
Brecker and Mainieri are featured on the Dire Straits album Brothers in Arms. For rock listeners, the albums Steps Ahead and Modern Times (1984, with Bernhardt replacing Elias in the main line-up, and other guest musicians appearing in limited roles) are a great bridge into a kind of jazz that is energetic and powerful. Reflecting the cooperative, ensemble nature of the band, the Modern Times album included compositions by Mainieri, Brecker, Erskine, and Bernhardt.
Steve Smith continues to join the group periodically and is scheduled to perform live with Steps Ahead in 2013. Keep an eye on the tour page for information as it is released.
Click on a project, below, to learn more about Steve's current and past projects.