Stewart Smith

Stewart Smith writes about jazz, improvisation, underground and experimental music for The Wire, We Jazz, The Quietus, Bandcamp Daily, Tribune, The Guardian and The List. Major pieces include profiles of Tyshawn Sorey, Tomeka Reid, Pat Thomas, Ingrid Laubrock and William Parker, a feature on bagpipes in experimental music and a 40^th anniversary review of The Minutemen’s visionary punk masterpiece Double Nickels On The Dime. Having grown up near Stirling, he is a champion of Scotland’s experimental underground, covering the weirdos left out of the official narratives. In 2021, he curated the Creative Scotland funded project Jazz At The Third Eye, exploring the legacy of Glasgow’s pioneering multi-arts centre through oral history, the sharing of archives, and commissioned responses by contemporary musicians, poets and artists. As a broadcaster, he has presented Radical Scotland and Jazz Police on Repeater Radio. He has also been a guest speaker on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Scotland. His free-wheeling DJ sets have rocked festivals such as Meteo (Mulhouse), Counterflows (Glasgow/Edinburgh) and Tusk (Newcastle/Gateshead). Currently based in Newcastle, he teaches at the University and facilitates DJ workshops with learning disabled adults. He is currently writing a book on improvised music for Repeater/Zero. His Ion Engine newsletter features updates on his work and bonus material.