Mary-Sue Tobin

Ms. Tobin grew up in Eugene, OR where she studied piano, oboe and saxophone as a child. She started her own jazz group (whose first gig was at the legendary WOW Hall with then locals Andre St. James, Don Latarski Carl Woideck and writer Ken Kesey,) as a teenager. After stints at Berklee and University of Oregon MST left Eugene to tour with world beat group Dub Squad before settling in Portland, OR where she worked as an accompanist for The Jefferson Dancers and Mary Oslund in addition to considerable work as a sideperson and band leader. She has played with a wide variety of bands and musicians including: Glen Moore's Oregon Ensemble, Darrell Grant, Flatland, the Inquisition Ensemble, The Temptations, Jonas Tauber, Esperanza Spalding, the Matt Wayne Band, Surf Jazz, James Jazz Orchestra, The Midnight 7, Israel Annoh, Thara Memory, David Valdez, Andre St. James, Chris Newman, Miss Mona's Caberet House Band, Carlton Jackson Big Band, DK Stewart, George Reinmiller Big Band, Border Patrol Big Band, Art Abrams Big Band, Dub Squad, Snow Bud and the Flower People, the Oblivion Seekers, Johnny Legend, the Stragglers, I and I, Instigators and literally hundreds of others. She has toured with and opened for legends like Herbie Hancock, James Moody, Billy Mintz, Wayne Horvitz, Third World, Steel Pulse and many others. She led two previous groups, Loud Sistah and MST and the A-List, playing both saxophone and keyboards in addition to fronting the groups and writing much of the material. She is now concentrating primarily on jazz and saxophone and leads two of her own groups; the MS Tobin Quintet and Paxselin Quartet, in addition to a variety of side jobs. She has studied saxophone and jazz with some of Portland's finest including Warren Rand, Rob Davis, Alan Jones, Glen Moore, Scott Hall and Rob Scheps. Last Spring she attended the exclusive International Banff Jazz Festival and spent three weeks in Canada studying with Dave Douglas, John Abercrombie and a staff of cutting edge jazz musicians from around the world. She has appeared in the movie "Hear No Evil" (starring Marlee Matlin and Martin Sheen) with Dub Squad and can be heard on numerous local releases (including Chris Newman's new release on Flying Heart Records) over the past ten years. She recently helped research and write excerpts for Darrell Grant's upcoming book, "New Real Standards" and does free lance work for The Leroy Vinegar Jazz Institute.

She is currently a master's student and graduate teaching assistant for Portland State University's jazz studies department. She lives in SE Portland Show less