Dave smoota smith
Dave Smoota Smith is a trombone player, singer, songwriter, producer and bandleader based in Brooklyn, NY. He tours the world with his one-of-a-kind one man show SMOOTA and leads several bands in NYC: The Smoota Tête-a-Tête, Smootaphilia: Ensemble Erotic, and Smoota & The Beast.
He is a member of several renowned NYC bands including Rev. Vince Anderson & The Love Choir (the longest running weekly residency in the city), Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber (founded by the late great writer and critic Greg Tate), ARMO (featuring members of legendary Afrobeat band Antibalas), Jordan McLean's JMMR, Bogie Nights (led by sax master Stuart Bogie), and Long Island legends The Bogmen.
He has performed and/or recorded with a long list of acts, including TV On The Radio (touring since 2011), Run The Jewels, Steven Tyler, Aaron Neville, Valerie June, Pretty Lights (on his Grammy-winning album A Color Map of the Sun), Angélique Kidjo (on her Grammy winning album Eve), Sufjan Stevens, Prison, Pharaoh Monche, Bebel Gilberto, Gordan Gano of the Violent Femmes, Phish, Spoon, El-P, Matisyahu, Kevin Morby, Diamond Rugs, Ade Oasis, Midnight Magic, and many more.
Born in Boston, MA, Smoota studied film and literature at Harvard College before moving to NYC and discovering a life in music.
Smoota also played trombone and keyboards in Fela!, the Broadway musical directed by choreographer Bill T. Jones about the life of Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and played trombone and acted in a stage opera version of Melvin Van Peebles' proto-blaxploitation flick Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, directed by Van Peebles himself. He returns to the stage in 2025 for a show at renowned experimental LA stage New Theater Hollywood.
He appeared on ABC TV as a member of the house band of The Gong Show hosted by comedian Mike Meyers. And his trombone appears on the revival of the hit anomated series Animaniacs.
He appears in the award-winning documentary The Reverend (dir. Nick Canfield) about Rev. Vince Anderson & The Love Choir's weekly Monday residency at Union Pool in Brooklyn.
VITAL STATISTICS
NAME: Smoota (born David William Smith)
HEIGHT: 5' 11"
WEIGHT: 169 lbs
HAIR: Brown
EYES: Hazel
SCAR: Right Hip (two of them)
BIRTH DATE: October 11
EDUCATION: Harvard College (Film & Literature)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Libra
CHINESE ZODIAC: The Ox
FAVE MOVIE SEX SCENE: The Other Side Of The Wind (Orson Welles)
FAVE LITERARY SEX SCENE: “So I turned my head and lazily sniffed the smell of brine that Marie's head had left on the pillow.” (Albert Camus)
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
SMOOTA LPS
(also produced & engineered)
Fetishes LP (2013)
Pheromones LP (2018)
The Pandemic Threesome EP (2021)
- Anti-Anti-Body (I Want Your Body)
- Catch It! (The Coronavirus Boogie)
- (What's Your) Vaccination Situation?
SMOOTA SINGLES
(also produced & engineered)
SMOOTA: Comb Away The Tangles (2023)
SMOOTA: Her Baby Is Her Body (2024)
SMOOTA PRESENTS MEAH PACE: Ho Ho Ho (Santa's Gotta Go) (2017)
SMOOTA FEAT. JULIA HALTIGAN : (Let's Have An) X-Rated Xmas (2021)
SMOOTA: New York, New York/New York, New York Dub (2022)
SMOOTA: Save It! (The Mother Earth Boogie) (2023)
SMOOTA: Scared Stiff (2023)
SMOOTA: SexyTime (2020)
SMOOTA: What Have You Got To Lose (2022)
MOTHER FEATHER & SMOOTA: Blue Christmas (2024)
other recordings
NIGHT CRY s/t
RUN THE JEWELS: Run The Jewels; Run The Jewels 2
TV ON THE RADIO: Seeds
AARON NEVILLE: Apache
EL-P: Cancer 4 Cure
REV. VINCE ANDERSON & THE LOVE CHOIR: The Reverand Soundtrack (also produced)
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO: Eve (Grammy winner)
PRETTY LIGHTS: A Color Map of the Sun (Grammy winner)
PRISON: Downstate
KEVIN MORBY: Oh My God
THE FLIRTATIONS: Still Sounds Like The Flirtations
HOT MUSTARD: Mothersauce; Seconds, Monster Season
MATISYAHU: Akida
CARL HANCOCK RUX: Homeostasis
PRODUCED
REV. VINCE ANDERSON & THE LOVE CHOIR: The Reverand Soundtrack
SADIE PINE: For The Best EP
