Jazzfest Berlin 2026: Ches Smith

Clone Row

Ches Smith: Clone Row – Vier Personen stehen auf einem Gehweg neben einem Gebäude mit Topfpflanzen.

Ches Smith: Clone Row

(US)

It’s no secret that most musicians playing jazz these days were initially inspired by rock music, a practice that always had an impressively low cost of entry in terms of technique. Still, among those players who moved on to more challenging endeavors, that rock foundation often remains a part of their DNA, as it does for drummer Ches Smith, a native Californian who found his voice working in a series of alternative rock bands in the Bay Area, where he worked closely with groups like Xiu Xiu, Secret Chiefs 3, and Carla Bozulich’s Evangelista. His trajectory has long been marked by overlapping interests – as Smith studied traditional music from Haiti, he was also working closely with saxophonist Tim Berne and pianist Craig Taborn and interpreting music composed by John Zorn. His quartet Clone Row probably brings together his early interests and his improvisational practice more completely than any of his other bands.

The group’s 2025 eponymous debut enfolds ideas gleaned from Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time, the Minutemen and Gang of Four, among others, but through a totally modern lens, fueled by the potent interplay of guitarists Mary Halvorson and Liberty Ellman – two of the most sophisticated and versatile practitioners of the instrument at work today – and the slinky low end of Berlin-based bassist Nick Dunston. Smith’s broad interests are reflected in the group’s gritty collision of acoustic and electronic beats, the harmonic sophistication of jazz set within fierce rock-driven grooves, and a refusal to stick to any single source. The name of the band is a play on the “tone row” in Schönberg’s twelve-tone technique, while the title of Abrade With Me is a tweak on the hymn famously embraced by Thelonious Monk, both indications that as heady as the sounds can be, Clone Row is ultimately charged by a palpable sense of play. This performance marks the band’s Berlin debut.

Line-up

Ches Smith – drums, vibraphone, electronics

Mary Halvorson – guitar

Liberty Ellman – guitar

Nick Dunston – double bass, electronics

Runtime: Thu, 29/10/2026 to Sun, 01/11/2026

Next date: Ches Smith: Clone Row

• Date Sunday, 01/November/2026 22:30
• Venue Quasimodo
• Address Kantstraße 12A, 10623 Berlin-Charlottenburg
• Price from €23.78

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