The jazz musicians that influenced Patti Smith more than anyone: “My love of the human voice”
One of my highlights of 2025 was seeing Patti Smith live in London. 79 years old and still one of the greatest rock stars on the planet. You’ve gotta love it.
This wasn’t merely a gig; it was Smith celebrating 50 years of her iconic album Horses. The way that those songs resonate with people to this day is no small achievement, it’s a testament to Smith as an icon, a lyricist and a performer, because Far Out put together a list of artists who were inspired by the album, and it’s interesting how much it still resonates in modern music.
Charlie Wood from the band THWACK! described the influence of someone like Smith beautifully, highlighting both the poetic nature of her lyrics and the intense expression of her live shows, and it’s a combination which was as powerful in 2025 as it was in 1975.
“Her ability to seamlessly blend the precision of her poetry with the raw, untameable nature of her delivery on Horses and in her live shows is unparalleled,” said Wood. “There’s something so genderless and free about her, and she has this way of grabbing you by the guts but still maintaining a deep gentleness. There’s no pretensions with her – she’s always being and bringing her fullest truth in a way that any punk band worth their salt should dream of doing too.”
One of the most poignant things I noticed upon seeing Smith live was how flexible the entire band’s performance was. Despite the fact that these songs have been played live for 50 years, it still seems that they don’t take a rigid approach when it comes to working out how they should sound live, and there was room for improvisation, and everyone had a chance to feed off the room while playing, meaning that even though people would have been listening to these songs for decades, they felt as though they were still getting something brand new.
You heard this specifically on the song ‘Birdland’, as the ten-minute epic kept the same lyrics but remained open enough for the guitarist and drummer to shred and improvise throughout. The whole thing was akin to free jazz and was quite easily one of the greatest live songs I’ve ever set both my eyes and ears upon.
“Our band never does the same set list twice. Much of what happens through the night depends on the people, the atmosphere, the venue, the city, and the political situation,” said Smith when discussing her approach to live music. “We draw from a multitude of energies. Each performance is unique, so I never get bored. I experience all kinds of emotions from frustration to elation. But never boredom.”
When you hear Smith talk like this, paired with the haphazard nature of some of her live performances, it’s not surprising to learn that she draws from jazz artists quite a lot. Whenever an artist improvises and makes music in the heat of a specific moment, there is always some form of jazz inspiration lingering in the background, given that these are the foundations upon which such a genre was built. While Smith has plenty of heroes within the genre, there are two specifically she admits to trying to channel when performing.
“The evolution of my band, both past and present, has been an organic, collaborative effort. I was motivated by the desire to reinfuse rock and roll with the political, spiritual, and revolutionary energy that had inspired me,” she said.
Concluding, “My love of the human voice, expressed through opera and spirituals, and my love of improvisation, for example, the work of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, have influenced the way in which I conduct myself in the arena of rock and roll.”
