guitar

Tony Smith

In my book, there’s two kinds of music – good and bad, but as far as guitar players go, my early influences were Santana and Jeff Beck followed by Larry Carlton and Robben Ford. Before that, I listened to the great rock bands of the 60s and 70s (The Beatles, Led Zeppelin etc). I also secretly listened to my dad’s Frank Sinatra, Sergio Mendes and Sarah Vaughn records ( I was only 13!) I also got into jazz when I was at Humber College and heard Pat Metheny, Miles Davis, John Scofield and Pat Martino amongst others. After college, I spent a lot of time gigging with funk bands which has been a huge influence on my music

I always keep an ear open for anything new that inspires me by anyone in any form of music.

 

About Tony

Having lived and worked in Canada and the US for almost 20 years, Tony moved to London in the late 80's and immediately established himself as a guitarist with a unique sound and voice. He then released two fine albums Big Cat and The
Runner for the Jazzizit label, before winning the prestigious MOBO award for his work with the Jazz Steppers.

Following this, he became the featured guitarist with legendary US vibist Roy Ayers with whom he has toured all over the world for nearly six years.

In 2003 he recorded his third solo album Backlands to much critical acclaim available from www.jazzcds.co.uk.

He then went on to start up his own band Tony Smith & Co, made up of some of the UK's leading jazz and session musicians. The band was launched over two sell-out nights at Soho's Pizza Express Jazz Club featuring jazz songster Ian Shaw.

Tony features regularly in the press and media including, The Evening Standard, Metro, Time Out and Jazzwise Magazine. He has also been a guest on mainstream radio shows such as The Vanessa Feltz Show and The Craig Charles Show for the BBC.

In 2006, ‘Loyalty’ was released (read the review from Jazzwise magazine), featuring musicians Jerry Brown, Jason Rebello and others, and vocalists Sarah Jane Morris, Ian Shaw and Gary Poole.

2007 sees the release of Tony’s new album ‘The Window’ which features him playing his new Telecaster.  The CD features Jason Rebello on keyboards, John Harvey on bass and Jerry Brown on drums and other special guests.

Equipment:

  • Fender Telecaster
  • Marshall 50W amp
  • Martin Acoustic
  • A million pedals!

UK CV Highlights:

  • MOBO award with Jazz Steppers for Best Jazz Act
  • Two solo albums on Jazzizit label ‘Big Cat’ and ‘The Runner’
  • Worldwide dates with Roy Ayers, Jocelyn Brown and Ray Gaskins.
  • Radio interviews with: Vanessa Feltz (BBC) and Craig Charles 'The Funk Show' (BBC)