For many years Tom Smith has been one of the South's most visible jazz personalities. "Tom Smith is part jazz trombonist, part music missionary." Downbeat Magazine. Smith developed a love for jazz music at an early age. His father, a noted jazz trombonist, instilled in him a passion of this American art form. After attending North Texas State University, he received his bachelors degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and a masters degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. For four years, he led many award-winning high school and junior high bands. Smith was the longest continuous jazz artist-in-residence from the N.C. Artist-in-Residence program. He served at three different North Carolina community colleges between 1984-1992. It was during this time that he founded some of the most critically acclaimed community jazz ensembles in the U.S, while performing for over two-million people. Smith's best known ensemble has been the Unifour Jazz Ensemble, a sixteen-piece big band of much renown. They were the first Musicfest USA National Champions and placed eighth in the Downbeat Readers Poll in 1988. In that same poll, Smith placed fifth in the trombone category. As a soloist, he has performed and toured with Louie Bellson, Clark Terry, Joe Henderson, Herb Ellis, Donald Byrd and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. In 1995, he served as a musical director for Norwegian Cruise Lines. In the last two years he has performed in over twenty countries as a band leader, sideman, and clinician. Smith is also a noted jazz historian and has served as an adjunct instructor of jazz history at Wake Forest University.