Elmont to welcome the sounds of the city

The sounds of the city are coming to Elmont, treating the community to a special Veterans Day concert.

The Elmont VFW Post 1033 will be in attendance at the Elmont Public Library for a performance by Jerome “City” Smith & the City Sounds Music Ensemble on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. The show, which Smith calls “Stars & Stripes Forever,” will honor the day in song and spirit with renditions of patriotic classics.

Smith, 58, was born in Hempstead and attended Hempstead High School, where he had his first professional musical performance at age 14.

Smith said he was inspired by the Jackson Five when he was younger and started playing drums, joining his high school marching band. He went to Nassau Community College and landed a four-year music scholarship at Long Island University in Brooklyn. 

Smith’s life has been defined by music and he has performed with some of the biggest names in the music industry. He has performed with Mary J. Blige in his first live performance on drums; Philip Bailey, from Earth, Wind and Fire; Tito Puente; Martha Wash; and Lionel Hampton Big Band; and performed in the 25th-anniversary tour of “Hair.”

While he was in college, he performed at weddings and bar mitzvahs. Smith started his own group, called “Jerome and The Prime Directive.” He got an audition to do the Broadway Musical, The Buddy Holly Story, and played Sam Cooke.

Even though Smith has met and performed with many stars in his career, he said that he never got “starstruck.” Smith said his nickname “City” was born after a mistake by a local music promoter.

“I was playing drums with jazz artist Peter Moffitt and we were going to Buffalo, and on the flier, the promoter said that I was from Brooklyn, even though I was from Long Island,” Smith said. “(The flier) said, ‘We have the fabulous Jerome ‘City’ Smith on drums.’ I was not happy because they didn’t run it by me but when I was doing a drum solo, the people were yelling out, ‘City, city, city’ and so it stuck all these years.”

Smith has always been a full-time musician but also works part-time in child health care, which he became involved in after his cousin passed away.

“She got involved with the wrong kind of guy and had gotten into some kind of narcotic and it destroyed her mind,” Smith said. “I decided I wanted to get into that health field to honor her.”

Smith has been working in childcare for the last seven years, and five years ago he also became an ordained Baptist minister, preaching at Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church in Huntington.

Previously, Smith had never done any jobs that did not involve music and continues to primarily focus on music. “I’m always doing music,” he said. “As a matter of fact, there is never enough time for me to sleep.”

Smith also has performed in Germany, Amsterdam, Norway, Switzerland and Denmark. “I’ve been blessed to be playing around and hanging around the best who have done it,” Smith said. “I take from all the greats and put my own taste on it.”

The one thing Smith has yet to accomplish is create his own record, which he said he is now working on. “That’s what I think I do want to do now — concentrate and have my own thing out there,” Smith said. “I’ve played behind so many other people and added what I do to their art. I think now it’s time to do my own music.”

Smith conducts a nine-piece orchestra for the City Sounds Music Ensemble, which will be performing with him at the Nov. 6 concert. The group comprises musicians he has played with throughout the years and Samantha Harris, a music student that he has mentored since she was 14 years old.

The concert will feature Smith performing a rendition of “America” by Ray Charles, along with songs, including “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” “This Land is Your Land” and will conclude with “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood.

“I wanted to do something to honor them with the marching band-type music that is usually played on Veterans Day,” Smith said.

Smith said he is excited to perform in what will be his second Veterans Day concert and will look to do what he always does during his performances — connect people through music.

“The main thing I want to do, with music being the key, is to open up the door to building bridges and not walls,” Smith said. “We are all God’s children, he expects us to be united, and that’s what I, with the power of music, can help do. It’s about bringing us all together through music and it hasn’t failed me yet. I’m able to connect us all together — when they come to a City Sound music event.”