Jazz Articles about Tommy Smith

About Tommy Smith

Radio & Podcasts

In this hour, an interview with UK journalist and operator of Rob Adams Music Touring, Rob Adams. Plus, new music from the Webber/Morris Big Band, Icelandic pianist and post-classical composer Eydís Evensen, and another single from vocalist and storyteller Allen Austin-Bishop's upcoming release. Playlist Darius Jones “We Inside Now" from Legend of e'Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye) (AUM Fidelity) 8:13 Webber/Morris Big Band “Just Intonation Etudes for Big Band -Pulse" from Unseparate (Out of Your Head) 5:46 [excerpt] Peter ...

Radio & Podcasts

Tommy Smith, John Taylor, Arild Andersen, John Surman & More

by Ludovico Granvassu
April 8, 2025

Here is a playlist featuring endless delights from recent and not so recent releases of Kenny Wheeler, and Kenny Wheeler-adjacent music, projects and musicians.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 John Taylor “Spring (Phases)" Close to Mars (CAM Jazz) 0:16 Host talks 6:28 Arild Andersen “Ghosts / Old Stev / Landloper" Landloper (ECM) 8:15 Rainer Brüninghaus, Kenny Wheeler, Jon Christensen, Brynjar Hoff “Stufen" Freigeweht [Reissue] (ECM) 15:51 Host talks ...

Album Review

Arild Andersen, Paolo Vinaccia, Tommy Smith: Mira

Read "Mira" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
May 16, 2014

Registrato al leggendario Rainbow Studio di Oslo nel dicembre 2012 e uscito poco più di un anno dopo (gennaio 2014), questo album ci ripropone una delle formazioni più tipiche, esplicative, paradigmatiche, di un dato suono nordico in jazz, nello specifico veicolato attraverso un organico che nella musica afroamericana, pur con tutte le di lei progressive appendici, affonda massicciamente le proprie radici. L'impatto iniziale ci regala da subito l'abbraccio con quella straniata, fascinosa souplesse che permea l'intero lavoro, ...

Extended Analysis

Arild Andersen / Paolo Vinaccia / Tommy Smith: Mira

by John Kelman
January 22, 2014

The debut of Arild Andersen's now longstanding trio with Scottish saxophonist Tommy Smith and Italian expat drummer Paolo Vinaccia on Live at Belleville (ECM, 2008) came as no small surprise, even to those familiar with the Norwegian bassist's work on the label--dating right back to its inception on Jan Garbarek's classic Afric Pepperbird (ECM, 1971), as well as with his own fine triptych of more accessible early albums, recently collected on Green Into Blue--Early Quartets (ECM, 2010). Andersen ...

Extended Analysis

Scottish National Jazz Orchestra: In the Spirit of Duke

by Jack Bowers
July 22, 2013

It had long been saxophonist Tommy Smith's dream to perform and record a live concert of music written by or associated with the great Duke Ellington. As leader of the acclaimed Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Smith set about making that dream come true, and in October 2012 it happened, as an enthusiastic audience saw and heard a stellar performance In the Spirit of Duke by Smith and the SNJO, one that those who weren't lucky enough to be present that ...

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Album Review

Tommy Smith: Karma

by John Kelman
May 23, 2011

Tommy Smith is on a roll. Not that he's been on anything but for the last several years, with a string of superb albums, each as different as they are consistent in demonstrating the saxophonist's ongoing ascension as a player, writer and bandleader. But that's not all. Since returning to Scotland after graduating from Boston's Berklee College of Music in the 1980s and kick-starting his career with a series of albums on Blue Note, Smith has literally reinvented Scotland's jazz ...

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Album Review

Tommy Smith: Torah

by John Kelman
October 19, 2010

Since returning home after schooling at Berklee College of Music, vibraphonist Gary Burton's final ECM quintet and Whiz Kids (1987), and four Blue Note discs as a leader, Tommy Smith has virtually single-handedly placed his native country on the jazz map with his Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (SNJO). He's also become a powerful advocate on the educational/mentoring front, leading the Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra and, with Exploration (Spartacus, 2007), demonstrating that it's possible to encourage mature performances from a ...