Giacomo Smith Quartet: Artfullee Album Launch
**Please note this event has been rescheduled from 31st May. Bookers have been notified. If you have any queries please contact hello@thehubstmarys.co.uk.**
Giacomo Smith‘s new quartet resides firmly in the cool. Following his September 2025 recording sessions, the former Kansas Smitty’s leader brings his first small-group set of original material to The Hub for the launch of Artfullee, his first foray into the straight-ahead jazz quartet.
The six originals on the album weren’t written down but taught to the band by ear, with musical decisions left unspoken in favour of the music finding its own natural form in the moment. The result is a melodically free, atmospheric set that emphasises mood over everything else, featuring Smith’s fluency across soprano and alto saxophones, clarinet and bass clarinet.
An accomplished clarinetist, saxophonist and composer, Smith was born in Italy and raised in the United States, where he developed a deep appreciation for jazz early in life. His career spans collaborations with Wynton Marsalis, Jamie Cullum, Biréli Lagrène, China Moses, Joe Lovano, Guy Barker and Julian Bliss, among many others. As a producer, he has worked on albums for Jamie Cullum, Damian Lewis, Zara McFarlane, Jas Kayser and Joe Stilgoe.
Smith is also an active educator, teaching at London’s Royal Academy of Music and at Django in June in Northampton, MA. His versatility allows him to blend the virtuosic techniques of earlier jazz traditions with modern sensibilities, a sound that is at once nostalgic and forward-looking.
Giacomo Smith – clarinet/saxophone
Tom Ward – piano
Tom Farmer – bass
Shane Forbes – drums
