From The Blue Highway, by Curtis Hewston

Remember the name Sasha Smith...

... or better yet, don't let yourself forget it. Sasha Smith is from Sebastopol, California. I imagine he knows a thing or two about the San Francisco 49ers, I KNOW he knows something about the blues. Sasha Smith is a phenomenal keyboard player. He is also 14 years old. When I think of keyboard prodigies, I think of Mozart, then Steve Winwood, Stevie Wonder, and Lucky Peterson. Steve Winwood became a founding member of the Spencer Davis Group when he was 15. Stevie Wonder made his national debut on the Ed Sullivan Show when he was 11. Lucky Peterson played on the Tonight Show when he was five.

Sasha Smith began playing the piano when he was eight. He has since opened for Maria Muldaur and played with the greats Johnnie Johnson and Johnny Otis. When he was 13, Saha received a standing ovation at the 1994 Sonoma County Blues Festival. He played this year's Monterey Blues Festival and the Napa Jazz Festival, and in August he returns to Sonoma County. Sasha recorded his debut, 50-minute cd, Straight Up, last year, and it has just been released on the independent bucknbronx label. Papa Claude tells me, "Sasha is twice the player now than he was nine months ago."

Listen to Nine Finger Boogie and tell me how he can possibly be twice as good as that. There's more. Of the 11 cuts on Straight Up, Sasha wrote all 11. Sasha Smith is a first rate composer, in a league with Sunnyland Slim, Pinetop Perkins, and Mose Allison. Sasha claims many influences, by the way. Here are a few excerpts from the liner notes:

"The first disc that had the biggest effect on me was Johnnie Johnson's Johnnie B. Bad. I learned a lot from Johnnie on that album, and we finally met and jammed together when I was about 11." Sasha also writes, "Thanks to all my musical influences, especially Johnnie Johnson, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, McCoy Tyner, Art Lande, Mose Allison, Jimmy Smith, Charles Brown, Miles Davis, Dr. John, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Stu Blank, The Frame (Dave MacNab, Eric Crystal, Elliot Kavee, Hillel Familant), Keith Jarrett, Michel Petrucciani, Bennett Friedman, Richard Thompson, Peaches Davenport."

And "Finally, I'd like to thank my dad Claude Smith for helping write the songs, for turning me onto great music, for taking me all over the place to hear live music and meet the musicians, for hauling my equipment to gigs, and getting me there on time, for being my bass player, for teaching me my first blues progressions, and most of all for being a loving and caring father all my life, for encouraging me, for believing in me, and for making this album possible."

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