Vital Information

Vital Information began as an idea born out of a Boston-area college band. Drummer Steve Smith met bassist Tim Landers and saxophonist Dave Wilczewski in 1971 during their high school years while playing together in the Bridgewater State College Big Band, a Boston-area college band under the direction of Vincent Gannon. Over the following years the three musicians pursued separate high-profile gigs, with Smith touring with Jean-Luc Ponty, Landers with Al Di Meola, and Wilczewski with Freddie Hubbard, yet they kept returning to their shared musical vision. They reunited annually in Boston with guitarists such as Dean Brown, Daryl Stuermer, or Barry Finnerty to complete the band, and from 1977 to 1982 the three core members wrote many compositions, played gigs, and developed the sound and concept that became the first edition of Vital Information. The band's breakthrough came while Smith was still a member of the arena rock giant Journey. The group recorded its self-titled debut with Landers, Wilczewski, and guitarists Dean Brown and Mike Stern, recording in Warren, Rhode Island in January 1983 and releasing the album that summer. The record introduced a hard-charging fusion sound that critics later noted arrived a bit late to the party on the historical timeline of jazz fusion , yet it carved out its own identity, drawing on detectable echoes of electric Miles Davis, Weather Report and Return to Forever, in tamer, tidier forms. Smith balanced both bands for a period, and the band recorded its first album in January 1983 and later that year toured for the first time while Smith was still playing with Journey. The classic Columbia-era run continued with albums including Orion and Global Beat, with critics describing Orion as asserting itself in a bigger, splashier and more reverb-doused way, suggesting a type of arena fusion. As the decades progressed, Vital Information became known as a revolving showcase for elite instrumentalists while Smith remained its constant anchor. Smith toured Vital Information every year since 1983, and over the years its lineup changed, with Australian guitarist Frank Gambale a member of the band in the late nineties. Gambale's tenure actually began earlier and proved especially fruitful, as he played on 7 Vital Information albums in addition to his own extensive solo career and music education work. Later editions brought in keyboardist Tom Coster, formerly of Santana, along with bassists Jeff Andrews and Baron Browne and guitarist Vinny Valentino, while saxophonist Bill Evans, known for his work with Miles Davis and John McLaughlin, contributed to the 2007 album Vitalization. The band built a reputation as one of the most enduring fusion and jazz ensembles recording and touring as a regular unit, continually reshaping its sound through each new configuration.