Patrick Smith Ensembles
April 5, 6, 7, 8 @ 8:30 PM
Patrick Smith - Sax
Jenn Lo - Piano
Mark Godfrey - Bass
Nick Fraser - Drums
Patrick Smith is a freelance musician and teacher based in Toronto (originally from Ottawa). He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz Performance (BMus with Honours) from the University of Toronto, during his time there he was given the Ann and Wallace McCoy Renewable Scholarship upon graduation was awarded the SUBA Institute Award for Performance Excellence. Outside of his formal education, Patrick has traveled to New York to study with internationally acclaimed American saxophonist Mark Shim and in the past has studied under Canadian jazz legends Mike Murley, Kelly Jefferson and Tony Malaby.
He has established himself as a gifted and in demand freelance saxophonist in the Canadian music scene. He has extensively toured Canada, the US, and Europe with Erez Zobary, Legends of Motown (featuring Michael Dunston and Gary Beals), My Son The Hurricane, Chelsea Mcbride’s Socialist Night School and Forever Seger. In Spring 2019 he appeared with the Hitmen Drumline at the NBA Finals at Scotiabank Arena. He has performed alongside jazz legends as Juini Booth (former bassist of McCoy Tyner, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers),Terry Clarke (former drummer of Jim Hall, Oscar Peterson) and David Liebman (Elvin Jones).He has appeared at the Toronto Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Mariposa Folk Festival, Starbelly Jam, Wapiti Festival and many more.
Patrick keeps up a very active freelance schedule in Toronto appearing with many acts namely Eighth Street Orchestra, Dee Dee and the Dirty Martinis, Kubla, Queen Pepper, Erez Zobary, Soular, Dan Pitt Quintet, Jenna Marie, Shout The Band, Laura Hubert, Forever Seger, and Socialist Night School.
In 2018, Patrick released his debut album of original music entitled “Still Searching” with his jazz quintet featuring Kae Murphy on trumpet.. He currently leads the Patrick Smith Quintet (playing his original music) and the Patrick Smith 3-Oh (Jazz standards) which regularly perform at Toronto venues such as The Rex Hotel Jazz and Blues Bar, Reservoir Lounge, Drom Taberna, The Jazz Bistro, The Emmet Ray and other GTA venues. He also co-leads the free jazz machine The Archives of Eternity featuring vibraphonist Mark Hundevad. In April 2020, The Archives of Eternity released their debut full length album “Uranium 238” playing the music of Raphe Malik. They presented this music at the Something Else Festival in Hamilton On, in 2019 and 2021.
In fall 2017 Patrick spent 6 weeks on an artistic retreat in Copenhagen, Denmark performing with the Danish drummer and cymbal craftsman Lasse Funch, culminating in a performance at the renowned Christiania Jazzklub.
He is currently working on mixing and post production for a release with his new band 3-Oh which features Chris Banks and Lowell Whitty. He is currently finishing composing the music for his quintet’s first full length album of original music.