Steve Smith Jean Luc Ponty Gardens of Babylon (1976)

Gardens of Babylon by Jean Luc Ponty is from an October 1976 concert on the PBS TV show Soundstage. I had passed an audition in NYC to play drums for JeanLuc Ponty, left the Berklee College of Music in my 7th semester and went on tour with the group about one week later. This was our second gig I was just 22yearsold and felt quite intimidated. I talk about how it all happened in the podcast The Playful Musician: I combined my two Gretsch jazz kits to make the kit in this video. A few months later, in January 1977, I bought my first SONOR DRUMS. JeanLuc wanted me to play a big doublebass Billy Cobham style drumset in his band. I had been checking out Sonor drums and found a large kit which consisted of two 24 bass drums, three rack toms and two floor toms; it took a while to adjust to such a large kit but I adapted quickly. Ive been playing Sonor drums ever since. Steve Smith