Tom Smith has been making waves in the music industry as a self-styled jazz detective. Smith and Gary Westbrook have pioneered a computerized tone recognition system which uses sound wave technology to help them identify mystery solos on jazz recordings. Westbrook covers the tech angle; Smith is the jazz history expert.
According to Smith, there are numerous extant jazz recordings for which the solo instrumentalist is not identified. Sometimes, a soloist has been inaccurately identified, which turns into — as Smith puts it —“ the lie that is agreed upon.”
Recently, a segment about the Smith and Westbrook method aired on “Tech Live,” a popular cable TV program on Tech TV. Their technique was also discussed on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and “Weekly Edition.”
“We’ve identified about 60 jazz recordings so far,” Smith says. “The ultimate goal is to give musicians their due and to compile an accurate history of jazz.”
Smith says that a person’s playing style is as distinctive as a fingerprint, and he feels that his identification method is more than 99 percent accurate.
“We’ve done longitudinal studies studying a person over a period of many decades,” Smith says. “Even a person’s last gasps on a horn would identify him.
“People in the science field think our research is sound, but the musical field is less enthusiastic, more skeptical of what we’re doing.”
A book chronicling the duo’s musical investigations, “The Jazz Detectives,” will be published by Michigan Press. Smith expects the book to come out in about a year.
Smith recently received his fourth Outstanding Service to Jazz Education Award from the International Association of Jazz Education for his innovative jazz history research. Smith is also working on a book called “Charlie’s Left Turn” about a jazz musician named Charlie Ventura. He hopes the project will also turn into a documentary film.
In December, Smith was awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to Romania. Because of the current world situation, Smith’s travel plans are tenuous at best. Originally, Smith intended to fly to Romania with his family this October, but could be delayed as much as a year.
During the residency, Smith will lecture and do research at the University of Timisoara in the Carpathian Mountains and work to initiate community music groups, an area in which he has a great deal of experience.
Smith is known for starting the Unifour Jazz Ensemble in the 1980s, a 20-piece band which was considered by many to be among the world’s best jazz big bands. Because of the tremendous success Unifour enjoyed, it has spawned numerous community jazz bands with similar organization all around the world.
The rest of Smith’s musical resume is equally impressive. He has played for the Glenn Miller Band and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and has been “one of the guys in the dark” backing up such singers as Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Crystal Gayle and Cher. He turned down a chance to play with Madonna years ago, he says, because he was too “tragically hip” — although he admits that he’d accept such a gig now in a heartbeat. Smith also did a stint directing cruise ship bands, which has provided him with plenty of story fodder.
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