Tom and Matt Smith

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Tom and Matt Smith are father and son jazz musicians best known for their work in the United States and Eastern Europe.

Tom Smith (father) is a long time American university professor and multiple Senior Fulbright Professor of Music at the Romanian National University of Music, the University of Bucharest, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal Jazz Center, in Durban, South Africa. He was introduced to fine arts at an early age by his father, a noted trombonist and painter, 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). It was during this time that he founded some of the most critically acclaimed community and regional jazz ensembles in America, while performing for over two-million people. His best known group was the Unifour Jazz Ensemble, an eighteen-piece big band 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 international recognition for identifying the musical fingerprint for identification of unknown personnel on early recordings. Since 2002, his work in Romania has drawn wide attention in the field of jazz education. Called by a former Fulbright Executive Director the premminent Fulbright Scholar in Romanian history, Smith is the only foreigner to have been awarded The Romanian National Radio Prize (Romania's highest musical honor). Most recently, he founded and coordinated the Tibiscus University Jazz Seminar, the first summer music camp staged in Romania, and helped found the first western styled jazz music college in that country. In 2008, Smith was the recipient of the International Association for Jazz Education's Jazz Ambassador Award, in special ceremonies in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Matt Smith (son) is a teenage jazz percussionist and hip hop mixologist, considered among the fastest drummers in the world. In 2006, he became (at age 16) the youngest ever WFD Speed Drumming World Champion. He has held a number of speed drumming world records, including the record for high speed endurance (5132 single strokes in five consecutive minutes), and is currently the #2 ranked traditional grip speed drummer of all time. He was introduced to drums at age 9 when Louie Bellson (one of his father's performing acquaintances) gave him his first pair of drumsticks. His official debut occurred at age 12, when he performed for a jazz combo on Romanian National Television. At age 14, he recorded a debut album under his own name featuring an all star Eastern European lineup.

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