Dashill Smith and The Astral Pocket

Dashill Smith and The Astral Pocket. (Jazz Fusion and Pan-African explorations.) Dashill Smith is a Brooklyn-born, Atlanta-raised multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, producer, and performer whose musical world spans hip-hop, free jazz, funk, soul, blues, and Afro-beat. Rooted in a childhood steeped in everything from his father’s jazz and doo-wop records to early hip-hop, he went on to study under legendary theater director Freddie Hendricks at Tri-Cities High School before spending decades honing his craft on stages across the world. A natural improviser and magnetic live performer, Smith leads his own unit The Omega Level Squad, co-leads The Biological Misfits alongside actor and musician Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and has shared the stage with jazz-funk pioneer Roy Ayers, among many others. His north stars are P-Funk, Sly Stone, James Brown, and Fela Kuti — and when he steps on stage, you feel every one of them.