Kester Winston "Smitty" Smith is an American

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

. Born in Granada and raised from a young age in Trinidad, He is the

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

for the Taj Mahal Trio and has collaborated with

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

and

world In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

musicians. He has performed with and alongside

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

for over forty years. He has recorded music with Taj Mahal,

Geoff Muldaur Geoff Muldaur (born August 12, 1943) is an American active singer, guitarist and composer, who was a founding member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and a member of Paul Butterfield's Better Days. Career Having established a reputation with the Kwe ...

Peter Rowan Peter Rowan (born July 4, 1942) is an American bluegrass musician and composer. Rowan plays guitar and mandolin, yodels and sings. Biography Rowan was born in Wayland, Massachusetts to a musical family. From an early age, he had an interes ...

Cedella Booker Sidilla Editha "Cedella" Booker (née Malcolm and previously Marley) (July 23, 1926 – April 8, 2008) was a Jamaican singer and writer. She was the mother of reggae musician Bob Marley. Biography Booker was born Cedilla Editha Malcolm in Rhoden ...

Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received ...

Ellen McIlwaine Ellen McIlwaine (October 1, 1945 – June 23, 2021) was an American-born singer-songwriter and musician best known for her career as a solo singer, songwriter and slide guitarist. Biography Born in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, McIlwa ...

, Mary Coughlan and

Pinetop Perkins Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins (July 7, 1913 – March 21, 2011) was an American blues pianist. He played with some of the most influential blues and rock-and-roll performers of his time and received numerous honors, including a Grammy Life ...

Selected discography

, ''Mo' Roots,''

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

, 1974. * Taj Mahalm Music Fuh Ya' (Musica Para Tu) *Taj Mahal, ''Big Blues: Live at Ronnie Scott,'' Silverline Records, 1991 *Taj Mahal, ''Mule Bone,''

Gramavision Gramavision Records is an American record label founded in 1979. Since 1994 it has been a subsidiary of Rykodisc. The label's music is largely jazz, blues and folk oriented but has touched on many other styles and genres. In 1979, Jonathan F.P. ...

, 1991 *

, ''Secret Handshake,''

HighTone Records HighTone Records was an American independent record label based in Oakland, California, United States. HighTone specialized in American roots music including, country, rockabilly, western swing, blues and gospel. The label was created by Larry ...

, 1998 *Taj Mahal, ''Sugar Mama Blues,'' Just a Memory Records, 2004 *Taj Mahal, ''Maestro,''

Telarc Telarc International Corporation is an American audiophile independent record label founded in 1977 by two classically trained musicians and former teachers, Jack Renner and Robert Woods. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, the label has had a long associ ...

, 2008

References

American percussionists American drummers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-drummer-stub