According to 'DownBeat' Hall of Fame inductee Tom Smith, education almost single-handedly rescued jazz, then neutered it for reasons having little to do with music. In his opinion, twenty-first century jazz is a misguided art form lacking the willingness to innovate, while some educators favor appeasement through membership in academic tribes, that stifle creativity, amid environments equally divided between 'hucksterism' and sincerity. All the while, university tuitions rise, high school programs lose funding, and a larger ...
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According to 'DownBeat' Hall of Fame inductee Tom Smith, education almost single-handedly rescued jazz, then neutered it for reasons having little to do with music. In his opinion, twenty-first century jazz is a misguided art form lacking the willingness to innovate, while some educators favor appeasement through membership in academic tribes, that stifle creativity, amid environments equally divided between 'hucksterism' and sincerity. All the while, university tuitions rise, high school programs lose funding, and a larger number ask, "What's the point?" Still, despite conflict and unnecessary travails, jazz education fights to persevere in muddled and uncertain times. Like its predecessor 'Stealth Jazz: Behind the Curtain, 'Stealth Jazz Part II' offers largely anecdotal/ opinionated essays, that reject conformity with the same indignation that labeled its author "The Hunter S. Thompson of jazz criticism." Drawing from a career spanning nearly four decades as a world-class educator/ musician, Smith offers insights from places few have traveled, nor would ever want to go, and per the wishes of Miles Davis, is likely to draw an equal amount of praise and repudiation.***Tom Smith is a Downbeat Jazz Education Hall of Fame inductee, an IAJE Ambassador recipient, a six-time Senior Fulbright Professor (Romania), and a Fulbright Specialist (South Africa, Serbia). In 2003, he was awarded the Romanian Radio Prize, co-founded Romania's first music camp/school for jazz, and performed on three of that country's officially designated One Hundred Essential Recordings. In 2010, Tom relocated to China, where he developed a music strategy for teaching English to Mandarin speakers, and in 2011 was hired as Professor of Jazz/American Music Studies at Ningbo University, the first American music professor in Mainland China. He then subsequently wrote that country's curriculum for jazz/popular music education, and in 2013, was awarded the Camellia Prize for significant cultural/entreprenurial contributions. Tom has founded over fifty jazz ensembles on four continents, and is an active performer worldwide, having played trombone, conducted/recorded for scores of iconic musicians. A Brubeck Grant recipient, Tom's publications have been featured on National Public Radio (US), Discovery Channel, and Rutgers Roundtable. He has also contributed to American National Biography, Teaching Music Through Performance in Jazz, Bakers Dictionary, and Oxford Encyclopedia of European Jazz.
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