Patrick Smith Quintet featuring NYC’s Lex Korten
November 23 & 24 @ 8:00PM
Patrick Smith - Saxophone
Kae Murphy-Trumpet
Lex Korten-Piano
Mark Godfrey-Bass
Jon Catanus-Drums
Patrick Smith is a saxophonist based in Toronto (originally from Ottawa)
He has established himself as a gifted and in demand saxophonist in the Canadian music scene. In recent years he has extensively toured Canada, the US, and Europe with Legends of Motown (featuring Michael Dunston and Gary Beals), My Son The Hurricane, The Reklaws, Chelsea Mcbride’s Socialist Night School, and Forever Seger.
He keeps an active freelance schedule in Toronto and around North America appearing with artists such as Order of Canada Recipient Dave Young, Juini Booth (bassist for Mccoy Tyner and Tony Williams), Yemen Blues, Erez Zobary, Heavyweights Brass Band, Dee Dee and the Dirty Martinis, Eighth Street Orchestra, Dan Pitt Quintet, King Cardiac, Queen Pepper, Kazdoura, and Shout The Band., An active bandleader, he currently leads three projects. His quintet which plays hard hitting original modern jazz. His chord-less trio called “3-Oh” which draws from the spirit of Sonny Rollins and plays music from the standard jazz canon, originals, as well as unique interpretations of more contemporary material. And Pangea, which is a UK Jazz fused with Neo-Soul, World Music and R&B. A jazz fusion concept group featuring some of the top members of the Toronto music scene. This group draws from the spirit of John Coltrane reimagined in the 21st century in the age of connectivity across the globe. It features local heavyweights of the Toronto music scene. Darryl Joseph-Denie (Ahi, Listening Room), Kae Murphy (BADBADNOTGOOD, Whitney), and Jon Catanus (Erez Zobary, Diskarte)
He has released several albums over the past 5 years with his various projects.
In 2018 he released his debut EP of original compositions with his quintet called “Still Searching.”
In 2020 he released “Uranium 238” as a co-leader of The Archives of Eternity featuring vibraphonist Mark Hundevad. This music featured the unique avant-garde jazz compositions of the great Raphe Malik (trumpeter for Cecil Taylor) and Mark Hundevad.
In 2023, he released two singles off of his band “3-Oh”s forthcoming EP. An arrangement of “I Love You” the Billie Eilish tune followed by an intense rendition of Joe Henderson’s Afro-Centric
His debut album with Pangea was released January 2025
He is currently working on recording his quintet’s debut full length album and keeps a very active freelance schedule in Southern Ontario.
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Born in 1994 to parents with a boundless record collection and multifaceted languages of love towards music, Lex Korten discovered a personal relationship with the work of greats Duke Ellington and Jaki Byard at an early age. His childhood in Manhattan’s Upper West Side allowed him to pursue mentorships with several decorated pianists and achieve modest accolades in the national high school circuit, but it wasn’t until Korten moved to Ann Arbor, MI to study with Geri Allen that his path began to bend more trustfully towards a musical career. By the time he earned his BFA and relocated homeward, Korten had spent 4 years as an apprentice of the great legacy of Detroit Jazz and experimental music, while also completing two years of close mentorship with Benny Greenand others at the University of Michigan.
Korten’s auspicious first steps into the spotlight came in 2018 with a life-changing appointment to the piano chair of Tyshawn Sorey’s newly formed “Unfiltered.” sextet which toured and recorded intermittently for the following four years to notable acclaim. During this period, Korten won 1st prize in the UNISA International Piano Competition in South Africa and began cementing a reputation among his peers in New York as a valuable sideman and promising composer, bringing his first projects to The Jazz Gallery in Manhattan where he continues to perform today.
Since the pandemic, Lex Korten’s emergence into the echelons of the Jazz world has become ever more rapid and difficult to ignore. The list of renowned artists seeking Korten’s contributions over the last few years has become impractically long and impressively diverse, including the likes of Jaleel Shaw, Melissa Aldana, Joel Ross, Tyshawn Sorey, Robert Hurst, Caroline Davis, Mike Moreno, Ari Hoenig, Fay Victor, Dayna Stephens, Jonathan Kreisberg, Joe Farnsworth, Massimo Biolcati, Ben Solomon, Ndabo Zulu, John Ellis, Chris Turner, Joel Harrison, Or Bareket, Lage Lund, Nick Dunston, Luther Allison, DoYeon Kim and Clarence Penn to name just a few. Korten’s touring schedule yearly reaches dozens of US states and worldwide clubs and festivals, in between which he teaches lessons at The New School or privately at his home in New York City. In addition, Korten has given lessons and classes internationally to students from Greece, Germany, South Korea, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, Switzerland, China, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom (at the Royal Academy of Music in London) and at several universities in the USA. His performance credits include an extensive list of esteemed theaters such as The Kennedy Center(Washington, D.C.) or Teatro Amazonas (Manaus, Brazil) and international festivals (North Sea, Montreal, Earshot, etc).
Perhaps most notably of all, and most enduringly, Lex Korten has defined the first decade of his career by his immersion in his own generation’s forward pushing activity in a way that sidesteps traditional barriers between scenes and styles. Among his 30+ recording credits are projects representing a thorough cross section of the 21st century’s rising leaders in improvised music; names like Simon Moullier, Milena Casado, Zoh Amba, Nicola Caminiti, Tyrone Allen, Hannah Marks, Ben Tiberio, Claire Dickson, Morgan Guerin, Alex Hitchcock, Dave Adewumi, Sasha Berliner, Alfredo Colón, Linda Sikhakhane and more. Korten’s own bandleading projects include the Lex Korten Trio and Quartet as well as Canopy; an experimental 5-member ensemble. Lex Korten’s long anticipated debut original album Canopy released on September 19th, 2025 to critical acclaim from outlets including The Wire Magazine (UK), WNYC, For The Record, All About Jazz and others.
Lex Korten currently is an active bandleader in New York City, bringing his projects to stages at Lincoln Center, Mezzrow, Smalls, The Jazz Gallery, and across a blossoming roster of great Jazz clubs in Brooklyn while also appearing at experimental venues including Roulette, National Sawdust, LPR and The Stone.
As a native New Yorker, Lex is an avid student of NYC's history through the present day, and otherwise interested in urban geography as well as graphic design, cooking, world history and film. While a student at the University of Michigan, Lex double majored in Political Science, taking additional coursework for 2 years at the Ford School of Public Policy.
Some of Lex's favorite composers active in 2025 include Angel Marcloid, Ramona Andra Langley, Daniel Lopatin, and Cryptovolans as well as a countless list of improviser peers worldwide.