An interview by Courtenay Shipley

Tommy G, as he is affectionately known, is a rare occurrence. Seldom do you meet someone who has an impact on a town's jazz scene, is on everyone's "favorite human" list, AND who is as incredibly talented as he is. If there ever was a total package, it is Tommy. In fact, another musician I spoke with in passing said how funny it would be if everyone told a story about the impact Tommy has had on them. The humor is that we'd never run short on material. Tommy plays the drums and teaches and changes lives, one audience member at a time.

"I'm not sure why I wanted to be a drummer other than I liked banging on the bed with pencils and playing along with records as a kid. A friend of my mom's from high school was a drummer and I started taking lessons."

Flash forward from the early days in Philadelphia and Florida: after graduating from the University of Miami with a Bachelors Degree in jazz, Tommy decided to give Nashville a try since a friend was moving to Murfreesboro. His first gig was with Steve Roper, then various other artists and groups, but it wasn't until he called up Jeff Coffin to get together and play that he got involved in the rest of the jazz music scene. (You can hear Tommy and Jeff Coffin playing together on Coffin's cds Commonality and Go Round.). After that he began teaching at the Nashville Percussion Institute (unfortunately not around any longer) and its sister school, The Nashville Jazz Institute, which we now know as The Nashville Jazz Workshop. He has also been a volunteer at the W. O. Smith Community Music School for about 9 years. Tommy has also performed with Chris Walters, Liz Johnson, Jody Nardone, Rashaan Barber, the Middle TN Jazz Orchestra,and the faculty Jazz combo at University of Northern Iowa, to name a few Tommy recently took a two year hiatus from Nashville to obtain a masters degree from University of Northern Iowa in Jazz Pedagogy. I wanted to know what made him want to persue this rather than continuing to be a performer. His answer speaks volumes to his philosophy on music and why so many people hold him in such high regard as a person and a musical influence.

"When I moved to Florida, I didn't have an easy time finding a good teacher. I guess that's why I hold education to be so important. I was completely ignorant going into school – Miami was a good environment and it was quickly apparent that I didn't know very much about anything. But, that's how you learn. One of the aspects of any art form is that it has to keep going forward and for that to happen, the artists need to go forward. Artists need to keep the mentality that there's always something new to learn."

"I needed to find some new skills. I wanted to write and compose, but I didn't feel I had the skill set with which to do so. I could plunk out a melody but that was all. So, I started searching for a school that would challenge me and would provide a place to get those skills. Although I hadn't even heard of Northern Iowa,(I think I saw an ad in Downbeat) after speaking with the faculty and visiting the campus, the program seemed great. And it was! I had a great time. Everything I wanted to learn was there; if I didn't learn it, it was my fault. Plus it provided opportunities to learn things I didn't even know I wanted to learn."

So why the urge for composing?

"I was inspired by Jeff Coffin! He has a unique sound and vision to his music. That sound came from his exploration of composition. His playing has evolved as his compositions have evolved. All music moves forward by way of composition. Compositional challenges will bring forth new skills and improvisational challenges which will then lead to new concepts. Or vice versa. I have already noticed this in my own playing. As I continue to explore composition, I am finding myself hearing and playing the drumset in a whole new way. I am as excited about practicing drums as I have ever been! I need to incorporate new things in my playing to keep up with the tunes I am writing!"

But your focus was Jazz pedagogy. Were you intending on being a teacher later? (Keep reading folks – this is the important part of the article.)

"I don't ever think of going to a school just for a piece of paper. I think it's important to use what you learn. I got a jazz ped degree, so they insisted on certain goals. I wanted information in order to be able to communicate better with future students and to help me actualize my compositional goals. The program at UNI allowed me to become a more complete musician and teacher."

"Teaching has always been important to me – if you are teaching, you are getting outside of yourself. You're a servant of the student and thus a servant of the music. Also, being a part of that student's journey forces you to honestly know and think about what it is that you do. You need to be able to tell the student what they have to do and more importantly, show them how to achieve the desired goal. The teacher must set high standards, but also show the student how to reach those standards.

"As a performer of music, my own or someone else's, I need to have a servant's attitude. I'm a servant to the music, and the artist I'm playing with. When playing my own music, I must serve the music and the people I've hired, and also try to serve the audience. A servant's attitude isn't always about doing what the student wants or supplying what the audience thinks it wants to hear – the servant attitude is quite often about providing what they need with an air of humility. This air of humility comes directly from having a servant's attitude. Being able to play and teach music is a gift and we should treat it as such!

"The thing I've noticed in Nashville is that the audiences really do appreciate the honesty of a group that shows up to play with that servant attitude and positive energy. You don't need to dumb down the music but you also don't make it unaccessible. When you meet someone, you say, "This is who I am and I hope you like it." With music you say, "This is what I'm hearing right now and I hope you like it and get something out of it." I think if other musicians had that attitude then the audiences would enjoy original music more. And in return, the audience would say, "This person is honestly trying to share something and I'm going to be open to it." The minute the musician starts to think he or she is above the audience is the moment they will lose the audience."

Tommy is wrapping up his first year teaching drumset at Vanderbilt and MTSU, Beginning Improv on virbraphone, and coaching a jazz combo, as well as a class or two at The Jazz Workshop. He's only beginning his journey as a composer.

Tommy's recipe for introducing people to jazz: Take them to a live concert first.

"Say, 'Come check this out.' Make sure it was a concert where the musicians were playing with the attitude I have been talking about. Then I would suggest recordsfrom there if they liked it. One of the misconceptions we have in jazz education is that everyone needs to start in the same place and continue along a set timeline. They can start anywhere. Relate the music to what they've heard already. As an example, Hip Hop has similarities to jazz beats. Show them those similarities and you might bring them in. Musicians and audience members should study all things that have come before, what's going on now, and what's on the horizon."

Go see him play and you will see why so many people have raved about him. Tommy performs regularly with Liz Johnson (subject of the last article) on Wednesday nights at F. Scott's, and you can see him on May 12th at Snap on 2 & 4 at The Nashville Jazz Workshop performing with Roy Agee - Trombone, Pat Bergeson - guitar, Alana Rocklin - bass .