Tommy Smith

Tommy Smith (b.1967) is one of the finest musicians of his generation, who has worked in jazz, classical, theatre, folk, and pop circles. Smith’s prolific career began with his first album, Giant Strides, (1983) when he was only sixteen. This recording earned him a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston. There he formed the group Forward Motion and together they recorded two albums. Next, thanks to a recommendation by legendary jazz-fusion pianist Chick Corea, Smith was invited Gary Burton’s band. Smith would tour the world for the first time and play on the album ECM album Whiz Kids, (1987). Since then, he has made thirty solo albums as a leader for Blue Note, LINN, ECM and his label Spartacus Records, toured over 50 countries, and has collaborated with Arild Andersen, Edwin Morgan, Liz Lochhead, Norman MacCaig, Scottish Ensemble, John Scofield, Jaco Pastorius, Kenny Wheeler, Jack DeJohnette, Dizzy Gillespie, and Trilok Gurtu.

Smith is founder/artistic director of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (1995) The Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra (2001) and established Scotland’s first ever full-time jazz course (2009) at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He also holds three honorary doctorates from Heriot-Watt, Glasgow Caledonian & Edinburgh Universities, a Professorship from the RCS, Lord Provost Music Award, A Scottish Jazz Expo Award, BBC Heart of Jazz Award, and a Parliamentary Jazz Award

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Extended Analysis

Scottish National Jazz Orchestra: In the Spirit of Duke

Album Review

Karma by John Kelman
Torah by John Kelman
Exploration by John Kelman
Forbidden Fruit by John Kelman
Evolution by John Kelman
Blue Smith by Glenn Astarita
The Sound of Love by Glenn Astarita

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE ★★★★★ “His tone is tungsten-tough or tender and nostalgic, his improvisations stimulating and affecting.”

“He makes ancient and modern music sound strangely compatible and in his ecstatic renderings makes Coltrane’s ‘Naima’ and even Rodgers & Hart’s “My Romance’ sound like prayers. This is a unique album.”

SCOTSMAN ★★★★★ “His toughest and most creative quartet yet.” ”TOMMY Smith is not one to do things by half measures.”

IRISH TIMES ★★★★★ “Smith’s tenor is now the uniquely personal voice of a great player”

JAZZWISE “It is quite possibly his finest recording yet.”

OBSERVER Jazz CD of the week “An auspicious first release by Smith's own label”

GUARDIAN “A rare splicing of rich-toned, pipe-like themes, fiercely guttural up-tempo tenor improv, Arabic and Irish music.” Jazz CD of the week “A very elegant take on standard jazz materials”

MOJO “Scottish saxophonist/composer’s 24th album, one of his best.”

BIRMINGHAM POST “Since Stan Getz died, Smith must be one of the chief contenders for most beautiful saxophone sound in the world.”

INDEPENDENT “Smith comes across as a true star, inhabiting the sound of his saxophone in a way very few players anywhere in the world are capable of.”

PLAYBOY MAGAZINE “Smith’s artful writing makes the band sound like a petite philharmonic.”

DOWNBEAT “Smith’s some sax-man

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE ★★★★★ “His tone is tungsten-tough or tender and nostalgic, his improvisations stimulating and affecting.”

SCOTSMAN ★★★★★ “His toughest and most creative quartet yet.” ”TOMMY Smith is not one to do things by half measures.”

IRISH TIMES ★★★★★ “Smith’s tenor is now the uniquely personal voice of a great player”

JAZZWISE “It is quite possibly his finest recording yet.”

OBSERVER Jazz CD of the week “An auspicious first release by Smith's own label”

GUARDIAN “A rare splicing of rich-toned, pipe-like themes, fiercely guttural up-tempo tenor improv, Arabic and Irish music.” Jazz CD of the week “A very elegant take on standard jazz materials”

MOJO “Scottish saxophonist/composer’s 24th album, one of his best.”

BIRMINGHAM POST “Since Stan Getz died, Smith must be one of the chief contenders for most beautiful saxophone sound in the world.”

INDEPENDENT “Smith comes across as a true star, inhabiting the sound of his saxophone in a way very few players anywhere in the world are capable of.”

PLAYBOY MAGAZINE “Smith’s artful writing makes the band sound like a petite philharmonic.”

DOWNBEAT “Smith’s some sax-man. Possessing a shining powerful tone and masterful technique, he creates melodies, not riffs, even if the tempo is outrageous.”

LOS ANGELES TIMES “Smith’s soloing… is superb, never more so than in a stunning, utterly solo rendering of Solitude.”

ALL ABOUT JAZZ “Were Smith still living in the US, there’s every chance he’d be the star there that he clearly is at home.”

JOHN SCOFIELD “Tommy is an incredible writer and a great, great player.”

GARY BURTON “Tommy Smith, the most talented tenor sax star to arrive on the world scene in years.”

CHICK COREA “Tommy has a unique sound and approach. I like it from when I first heard him play as a student at Berklee.”

DAVID LIEBMAN “Tommy Smith is one of the best musicians around.”

JACK DeJOHNETTE “One of the important voices in the young tenor players of today.”

STUART NICHOLSON - JAZZWISE “The notion that an album will last beyond an artist’s lifetime, as in the case of many classics from jazz’s Golden Years in the 1950s and 1960s, seems a thing of the past. Yet Modern Jacobite, by the strength of Tommy Smith’s epic ‘Jacobite’ suite, certainly has the potential to last beyond Smith’s lifetime. In any event, ‘Jacobite’ is a masterful piece of music.”

LANCE LIDDLE – BEBOP SPOKEN HERE “There will be few better tenor saxophone records this year. In fact there will be few better jazz records this year. Probably no better ‘classical’ records this year. Truth is, there will be few better records this year.”

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