Tom Smith

Tomorrow you’ll wish you had practiced harder today.

You’re just a little too hip for the room. It’s not good to be too hip because two hips make an ass.

The Blues and Jazz will live forever. So will the Delta and the Big Easy.

I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.

I like what I hear other guys doing, but the thing that really attracts me is melodic playing.

Anytime you strike the drums, you have to be aware that you’re creating a musical event.

No, working is what will keep you alive.

I wanted something very dense, something that would sustain long and more pieces of wood that would be soft, sweet, for more of a mellow sound.

I have a sense of the importance of music and how powerful it is to bring people together.

Jazz is the big brother of the blues. If a guy’s playing blues like we play, he’s in high school. When he starts playing jazz it’s like going on to college, to a school of higher learning.

Well if I could play like Wynton, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.

Miles Davis is one who writes songs when he plays.

I developed in my head that I’m never any better than my last concert or the last time I played, so it’s like an audition each time. You get nervous just before going onstage. I still have that, but I think it’s more like concern. You’re concerned about the people – like meeting your in-laws for the first time.

Music represents nature. Nature represents life. Jazz represents nature. Jazz is life.

Music is a gift and a burden I’ve had since I can remember who I was.

I think I was supposed to play Jazz.