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Ed Smith's music career as a jazz vibraphonist and percussionist spans four decades. He has performed with distinguished artists such as John Cage, Phil Wilson, Louie Bellson, Johnny Mathis, Ed Soph, Glen Velez, Trichy Sankaran, Hands On’Semble and many others. In 2009 Smith was endorsed by the instrument manufacture and introduced their revolutionary vibraphone to Europe at the Italian Percussive Arts Society “Days of Percussion” in Fermo, Italy. In April 2010 he performed on it at Juilliard, Rutgers and William Paterson University. Smith performed a solo vibraphone concert at the 2012 Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC).  Malletech also manufactures Smith’s signature vibe mallets.

In 1992, Smith helped form the internationally recognized world percussion group , which recorded the soundtrack for the National Geographic film Lions of Darkness and performed in Hong Kong as part of the Chinese modern presentation of Mozart's The Magic Flute. A PBS short film about the group and their world travels won an Emmy in 1999. D’Drum has been a featured concert act at PASIC. They have two CDs, Village Besides Time and Within You, Without You. As a member of D’Drum, Smith recently collaborated with Stewart Copeland, drummer/co-founder of The Police, on a world music concerto called Gamelan D’Drum. The world premiere with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in February 2011 received rave reviews. They performed it again with the Cleveland Orchestra in 2012. A documentary film on the making of Gamelan D’Drum is scheduled for release in September 2014.

Smith began traveling to Bali, Indonesia in 1995 to study the music of wayang kulit (shadow puppet play) on the gamelan gender wayang. While in Bali in 1998, he was awarded the high honor of performing on the gender wayang with his teacher, Ketut Madri, in a temple celebration. Since 2002 Smith has also been studying the repertoire of the large Balinese gamelan, gong kebyar, with Nyoman Wenten and Wayan Sudirana.