Excerpts from Matt Smith's critically praised 2004 debut album. Matt Smith Quartet, Cristian Soleanu, George Dumitriu, Vlaicu Golcea. Matt Smith recorded these tracks early July 2004, in Bucharest, Romania. He was 14 years old. Matt had already formed his own jazz group at the Green Hours Club, Romania's most famous jazz venue, and performed his debut at age 12 on Romanian National Television. Matt started listening to John Coltrane and Miles Davis seriously just before studying with his percussion mentor, the celebrated Bucharest set player Vlad Popescu. When given the opportunity to record, Matt wanted to use the late Coltrane period to explore the drumming of Elvin Jones and especially Rashied Ali. In early 2005, Ali heard Matt's version of Expression and was impressed enough to call him. A friendly association soon developed that took hold during Matt's time in Flint, Michigan.