Brooklyn Circle
Church Street in front of City Hall
About
Michael-Louis Smith and Brooklyn Circle perform an ever-evolving, high-energy mix of original jazz. This band of brothers has delivered the goods to audiences in NYC, the Northeast, and nationwide for close to two decades, with an electric and sometimes telepathic group sound. The genesis of this collaboration happened in the winter of 2001, when longtime friends and bandmates Smith and House crossed paths with Dillard while at the Conservatory Of Music at Purchase College, just outside of New York City. Dillard would later describe the introduction as “just like The Wizard of Oz, you know how they all met and now they’re skipping down the road trusting each other with their lives and everything. The same way, no screening process just friends, friends!” Very soon after that, on a jam session at the Blue Note in New York City, they connected with drummer Ismail Lawal. Smith recalls House saying, “I like the way he plays!”; and within a week, the four of them were performing together on the road. Now, almost 20 years, hundreds of shows, multiple albums, and many tours later, the music is stronger than ever, and just keeps on getting better.
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