SONELIUS SMITH & ADAM KAHAN

Sonelius Smith (piano) and Adam Kahan (bass) and special guests

Sonelius Smith and Adam Kahan started their musical partnership in 2015. Combining roads traveled and untraveled, what they don’t know and what they haven’t already played; Smith and Kahan explore original compositions, standards, and some other stuff. On any given night they are sure to play something wildly beautiful, compelling and familiar, and then break through the guard rails and drive off a musical cliff.

Sonelius Smith is the greatest pianist you’ve probably never heard. A truly unique artist, his ideas are more incendiary than the staunchest avant-gardist (though the avant-garde can’t claim him). He can also be straight-ahead or even in the pocket (but the straight-aheaders wouldn’t touch him). Living the music for more than seven decades and hailing from Hillhouse, Mississippi, he plays with a soul and spirit that are intangible.
The list of greats Sonelius has played with is both long and impressive - Kenny Dorham, Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Elvin Jones, Rashied Ali, Archie Shepp, Freddie Hubbard, Shamek Farrah – to name just a few.
His compositions have been recorded by greats such as Ahmad Jamal, David Murray, Stanley Cowell, Robin Kenyatta and others.

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Adam Kahan is a bass player and filmmaker living in Brooklyn. He has been collaborating with Sonelius Smith over many years and in many different forms. They first started working together, with saxophonist/flutist Clare Daly, when they recorded the soundtrack for the short film My Eileen.

As a filmmaker, Adam has made documentaries on Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Buster Williams, Andres Serrano, Fred Tomaselli, narrative and experimental shorts as well.

A true Gemini living a double-life; as a musician Kahan has a forthcoming recording with Smith and as a filmmaker he is working on a new film about Sun Ra.