Ches Smith embodies convergence of jazz, art rock and new music

Searching for a common thread running through the far-flung musical endeavors of Brooklyn percussionist Ches Smith might seem like a futile effort. What connects the noise pop of Xiu Xiu with polymorphous singer-songwriter Carla Bozulich and the extended forms of alto saxophonist Tim Berne’s roiling quartet, Snakeoil? The styles and sonic parameters vary tremendously, but Smith treats each situation as an opportunity for exploration.

He’s at his most unfettered in his protean trio with violist Mat Maneri and pianist Craig Taborn, which makes its Bay Area debut Sunday, Feb. 14, at the Berkeley Arts Festival.

The band’s only Bay Area date is part of a West Coast tour marking the release of Smith’s beautifully atmospheric ECM debut, “The Bell,” an album offering a glimpse at a supremely mutable band that pivots on Smith’s instrumental choices. Moving between percussion implements, trap set and vibraphone, “Ches has a lot of latitude,” says Taborn, who performed at the SFJazz Center in March with saxophonist Chris Potter’s Underground Orchestra.

“There’s a section that we play as a driving rock thing, but the next day, right when you think drums are coming in, he’ll go play vibes, and now we’re playing it like a chamber ensemble. It’s the same section. It’s composed music, but when he decides to move from drums to percussion to vibes, he radically changes the sound of a piece.”

Taborn and Maneri are sought-after artists who have recorded their own critically hailed projects for ECM and other labels. The trio first played together at the Greenwich Village music spot the Cornelia Street Cafe, a one-off gig in the summer of 2013 when the drummer’s other bands were unavailable. A set of free improv went strikingly well, but knowing their busy schedules, Smith said, “‘That was awesome! Let’s never do it again.’ And they all cracked up.”

But when Manfred Eicher, the founder of ECM, approached Smith after a Tim Berne concert in Munich with an invitation to record for the German label, he thought back to the Cornelia Street encounter. “I didn’t see These Arches fitting in with ECM,” he says, referring to his rough-and-tumble garage jazz combo with guitarist Mary Halvorson, tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby and accordionist Andrea Parkins. “That’s not the direction that band is going. But I ran Craig and Mat by him, and Manfred thought it sounded like a good idea. Then I started writing for the band.”

Turned on to free jazz

Growing up in Sacramento, Smith came up in the city’s gritty punk scene, and got turned on to free jazz via Sonic Youth and other noise rock bands. After studying philosophy and music at the University of Oregon, he settled near Berkeley in 1995. It wasn’t long before he started attracting the attention of inventive composers like pianist Graham Connah and clarinetist Ben Goldberg. Recruited by percussionist William Winant, he studied percussion and composition at Mills College, and became an essential part of the Bay Area’s improv scene, recording prolifically with bassist Devon Hoff in the duo Good for Cows.

“I was going after the straight-ahead scene and slowly making headway,” Smith says. “But then I played a gig with Moe! Staiano, and met Carla Kihlstedt and discovered the scene around Beanbenders,” an alternative performance space in Berkeley that served as an essential hub for left field jazz and new music in the late 1990s.

Array of bands

Since moving to New York in 2007, Smith has become a ubiquitous presence via an array of bands, from Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog and Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant to Trey Spruance’s Secret Chiefs 3 and variously sized combos led by Mary Halvorson (not to mention four or five projects of his own). Parenthood has prompted him to focus his commitments, but he continues to expand his rhythmic palette, studying with Haitian drum master Daniel Brevil whenever possible.

“I’ve always been interested in different kinds of music,” Smith says. “I’ll still try anything, though it’s narrowing a little bit, but that’s strictly a time crunch. I have a kid now. I have to pick and choose more, but I always want things that are going to surprise me.”

Ches Smith Trio: 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14. $15-$30. Berkeley Arts Festival, 2133 University Ave., Berkeley. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com.