Tom Smith (jazz musician)

Tom Smith is an American jazz musician and educator.

Smith was introduced to fine arts at an early age by his father, a noted trombonist, best known for his work with New Orleans traditional jazz artist Murphy Campo. Tom Smith was the longest continuous member of the North Carolina Artist-in-Residence Program (1984–1992), while based at three separate North Carolina community colleges. A widely acknowledged pioneer of the American community jazz movement (having founded over fifty large community jazz ensembles) his best known group was the Unifour Jazz Ensemble, an eighteen-piece big band and first entirely state funded big band in the United States, that placed seventh in the 1988 Down Beat Readers Poll. In that same poll, Smith placed fifth in the trombone category. As an improvising soloist, he has performed and toured with Louie Bellson, Clark Terry, McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Chris Potter, the New York Voices, Nicholas Payton, Herb Ellis, Donald Byrd, Darius Brubeck and the Manhattan Transfer. Smith is also a noted music historian and researcher. In 2001 he and his research partner Gary Westbrook received recognition for identifying the musical fingerprint for identification of unknown personnel on early recordings. This and subsequent research has received widespread media exposure via National Public Radio's Weekly Edition and Tech TV. In 2014, Tom received the Brubeck Award for Jazz Research.

Since 2002, his works in global jazz education have drawn wide attention. Called by a former Fulbright Executive Director the preeminent jazz Fulbright Scholar in the program's history, Smith is the only foreigner to have been awarded The Romanian National Radio Prize. In 2005, he founded and coordinated the Romanian Jazz Education Seminar, the first summer music camp staged in Romania, and cofounded the first western styled jazz music college in that country (2004). In 2006, his Fulbright work in South Africa included extensive assistance with township based initiatives, alongside devising a strategy to link university jazz education with local Zulu musicians. In 2008, Smith was the recipient of the International Association for Jazz Education Jazz Ambassador Award, having already been awarded Outstanding Service to Jazz Education honors in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006. In 2009, Tom received his eighth Fulbright Award (a record for musician professors) and accepted residency at the Serbia Academy of Music (University of Arts) drafting the curriculum for their jazz program. Later, he accepted guest jazz studies appointments in Budva, Montenegro. In 2010, Tom and his wife Sarah relocated to Northeast China where he developed a jazz music strategy for teaching English to native Mandarin speakers. In 2011 he was appointed a professor of music at Ningbo University (Zhejiang Province, China) assigned to establish the first entirely functional jazz program on the Chinese mainland, that led to formation of numerous instrumental groups and a 40-member jazz choir. In 2013, Tom was awarded the Camellia Award, for noteworthy artistic contributions towards social betterment for the Greater Ningbo Region.