News

Teaching and Playing in Santiago, Cuba January 21st-28th

Pete McGuiness Big Band at Birdland, NYC Sunday February 11th 5:30pm

European Tour with Cecile McLorin Salvant’s Ogresse and Darcy James Argue March 8-18, 2024

With The Gil Evans Project at Birdland in NYC May 21-25

Spin Cycle at Smalls, NYC August 15th 7:30

My new set of nine compositions and the accompanying CD featuring Spin Cycle  Advanced Concepts in Rhythm and Harmony for Small Jazz Ensemble is now available! Click here to check it out.

My etude book is now available in a new and improved 2nd edition with three bonus etudes and larger printed font sizes. Check it out here.

Here is Spin Cycle playing a contrafact I wrote on Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party”

Click here to order your copy of Spin Cycle’s latest CD, Spin Cycle III.

About

Since his arrival in New York in 1989, Tom Christensen’s saxophone voice has set him apart. All Music Guide says, “Christensen possesses the goods to be a major force within the global modern jazz arena.” Jazz composers from Toshiko Akiyoshi to Darcy James Argue to Rufus Reid have found fuel for their musical visions in Tom’s dynamic solos. His mastery of double reeds, flutes and clarinets led the Detroit Free Press to describe his work as “fresh, intelligent” music that “honors post-bop improvisation without falling into clichés associated with bebop, modal jazz or the superficial exotica of world music.” Jazz masters from Joe Lovano and Paquito D’Rivera to Don Sebesky have featured Tom on Grammy winning recordings, and he’s performed and toured with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, to name just a few. He can be heard with Cecile McLorin Salvant on her most recent project Ogresse and on Rufus Reid’s Quiet Pride, David Liebman’s  A Tribute to Wayne Shorter, and on Ryan Truesdell’s The Gil Evans Project: Lines of Color. As bandleader and composer, Tom won a composition grant from Chamber Music America for an extended work based on the poetry of Frank O’Hara. Tom featured the piece on his third solo project, New York School (Playscape), a CD All About Jazz listed as one its Top Ten Jazz Albums of the year. Tom’s latest collaboration is Spin Cycle with drummer Scott Neumann. The band has performed at the Rochester and Toronto Jazz Festivals and garnered rave reviews in Downbeat magazine. Tom performs regularly in clubs and concert halls around New York City. He is also the author of several books on jazz pedagogy, the co-founder of Sound Footing Records, and teaches jazz at New York’s prestigious Fieldston School.

Discography

As A Leader

Gualala (NaxosJazz, 2000)

Paths (Playscape-Recordings, 2002)

New York School (Playscape-Recordings, 2005)

with Spin Cycle

Spin Cycle (Sound Footing Records, 2016)

Assorted Colors (Sound Footing Records, 2018)

Advanced Concepts in Rhythm and Harmony (Sound Footing Records, 2020)

Spin Cycle III (Sound Footing Records, 2022)

with Ryan Truesdell and The Gil Evans Project

Live at the Jazz Standard (Artist Share, 2014) Grammy Nominated

with The Kailash Trio

Americana (Nabel, 2003)

Kailash (Nabel, 2007)

with The Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra

Monopoly Game (BMG, 1998)

Tribute to Duke Ellington (BMG, 1999) Grammy Nominated

Hiroshima: Rising from the abyss (BMG, 2001)

Last Live at the Blue Note (Warner Bros Japan, 2004)

In Shanghai (After Beat, 2011)

with Rufus Reid

Quiet Pride (Motema, 2014) Grammy Nominated

with Joe Lovano

Celebrating Sinatra (Blue Note, 1997) Grammy Nominated

Viva Caruso (Blue note, 2002)

with Cheap Trick

Sgt. Pepper Live (Big 3 Records 2009)

with Don Sebesky

I remember Bill (BMG, 1998)

A Joyful Noise (BMG, 1999) Grammy Winner

with Paquito D’Rivera

Portraits of Cuba (Chesky, 1996) Grammy Winner

with John Pizzarelli

Our Love Is Here To Stay (RCA, 1997)

with David Sanchez

Obsession (Columbia, 1998) Grammy Nominated

with Pete McGuinness

First Flight (Summit, 2007) Grammy Nominated

Strength In Numbers (Summit, 2014)

Along for the Ride (Summit, 2019)

with Michael Musillami

Spirits (Playscape-Recordings, 2004)

Dachau (Playscape-Recordings, 2005)

with Tim Sund

Butterfly Effect  (Laika Records, 2018)

with John Hollenbeck

John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble (Omnitone, 2005)

with David Liebman and The David Liebman Big Band

The Seasons Reflected (Blacksaint, 2003)

A Tribute to Wayne Shorter (Summit, 2014)

Listen

 

 

Contact/epk

This page contains contact information as well as Tom’s EPK and Photos

email:  tomcmusic42@gmail.com

Cell:  201-370-3772

Tom Christensen EPK

Hi-Resolution Photos to download

Click to view and download full-sized versions