my name is john wilson smillie III. I grew up in Ann Arbor, Mi. and started playing the drums in school at the tender age of ten. I came to Chicago in 2000 to study music at the chicago college of performing arts at Roosevelt University, where i studied with paul wertico, phil gratteau, tito carillo, mikes smith and worked with maria schneider, tim hagans, john fedchock, carl allen, steve houghton and curtis fuller. I have had many opportunities to play around Chicago (Green Mill, Jazz Showcase, Hot House, Double Door, Martyrs, Pete Millers, Katerinas) as well as Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Toronto, Ann Arbor and Detroit. I work or have worked in and around chicago with information superhighway, collage, the mike smith quintet, mike allemana, the dan cray trio, the nick fryer/doug stone quartet, expansion project, the greg ward sextet, the scott hesse group, dave braun and shiyer grace, the doug stone quartet, matt holmans diversion ensemble, the doug rosenberg quartet, matt ulerys narnia quintet (formerly), salamander, human motion, the leslie beukelman group, lesley byers and the jazz cats, the andy distel quartet, the gentle giant quintet, the amanda crumley quartet, dog on wheels, junk in the trunk, vox maui and akasha. Collages' self-titled debut album is now available. more info at www.myspace.com/collagechicago
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