Tommy Smith Quartet

Internationally acclaimed saxophonist Tommy Smith launches a new band, the Tommy Smith Quartet: Embodying the Light.

On February 2, Smith and his new quartet went into the studio to record his first acoustic quartet album since 2005. Entitled Embodying the Light, the album will mark Smith's 50th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the death of one of his greatest inspirations, John Coltrane. It features Coltrane compositions including Naima, Dear Lord and Resolution and music associated with Coltrane alongside Smith compositions written in homage to Coltrane.

The new group features Smith alongside one of the UK's leading young piano talents, Peter Johnstone, a former Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year and winner, with the group Square One, of the 2015 Peter Whittingham Jazz Prize. Bassist Calum Gourlay is a young veteran of gigs with Sheila Jordan, Scott Hamilton and The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, and Sebastiaan de Krom has been the drumming powerhouse behind Herbie Hancock and Jamie Cullum.

Smith has been a presence on the world jazz scene since his teenage years. At the age of nineteen he was touring internationally with Gary Burton's Whiz Kids quintet and three years later he signed to the legendary jazz label Blue Note. He has since gone on to establish and direct the internationally acclaimed Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and he regularly tours the world with Norwegian bass master Arild Andersen's trio, widely regarded as one of the premier groups working in jazz today.