The Best In British Jazz
Mike Smith
Mike started playing Drums at the age of 9. He joined a Youth Big Band in the Oxford area when he was around 11 (which was co run by his father). At 13 he started attending rehearsals for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and at the age of 15 became the regular drummer. He stayed with the Orchestra for 5 years, during that time he worked with many great soloists and singers from the UK and the USA, namely, John Dankworth,, Cleo Lane, John Williams (the guitarist), Shorty Rogers to name but a few.
In 1987 Mike Joined the BBC Big Band and BBC Radio Orchestra. He was with the BBC up until 1997 and during that time he had the great honour of working with some world class composers/arrangers, soloists and singers; most notably, Robert Farnon, Angela Morley, Ronnie Hazlehurst, George Shearing, Georgie Fame, Madeline Bell, Bobby Shew and many others.
