Blue Strawberry | Open Jam for Composers, Musicians and Vocalists | Kendrick Smith's

Kendrick Smith's

The Kendrick Smith Trio Comes to Blue Strawberry Wednesday Late Nights!
From 9:30pm to 12:30am on Wednesdays, Kendrick Smith hosts Wednesday Late Night at Blue Strawberry. The Kendrick Smith Trio kicks the evening off. Interested composers, players, vocalists and students are invited to stop by every week and join in the music making. “I’m excited to serve as host of Wednesday Late Nights at Blue Strawberry,” says St. Louis’s own jazz standout. “With all the talent we have around town and coming through, there is a lot of music to be made.”
Saxophonist, composer, and educator Kendrick Smith was born and raised in East St. Louis. His love and gift for music was realized as a child during his grade school years, where a whirlwind musical career would begin. Kendrick attended Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (SIUE) on scholarship, where he began studying Jazz Performance under soulful pianist and educator Reggie Thomas. Kendrick has played as a solo act, and with his group, the Kendrick Smith Trio, all over the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. His first residency was at the Premier Lounge in St. Louis, where he played a weekly jazz matinee. As indication of his growing notoriety, he was featured and compared to jazz giant Charlie Parker in local newspaper, The St. Louis American, in an entitled, “Baby Bird Stretches Jazz Wings”. Other stages and venues he has graced include The Fat Cat and Smalls, both of New York City, Jazz at the Bistro, Sheldon Concert Hall, and Blueberry Hill, and Thurman’s Bar and Grill. 
Kendrick is looking forward to some very promising prospects: the debut of first album (released Spring 2019) and the feature of his original classical catalog, to be played by the University City Symphony Orchestra. All indicative of his creative and exploratory composing skills. Kendrick has also been selected to compose trailer music for an upcoming independent Hollywood film, He has played along some influential musicians/artists to include: Kirk Whalum, Greg Osby, Russell Gun, Emanuel Harold, The Temptations, and playwright and poet Ntozake Shange . In 2021 he started an instrumental reed and mouthpiece company named Truly Reeds. The reeds are currently available in every major music store in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. Kendrick has been called one of the emerging pillars of the St. Louis music scene and looks forward to fulfilling that prophecy. In 2022 he became the director of “Build A Yes” a Jazz music society based in St. Louis. In his own words, his vision is to “Strive for excellence, show forth professionalism on and off the bandstand, to touch people, and to keep jazz music alive and moving forward.”