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Collier & Dean

Collier and Dean grew up across the street from one another in West Seattle and have played music together professionally for over 50 years. As a duo, Tom and Dan have recorded and performed in concert with artists such as Ernie Watts, Don Grusin, Howard Roberts, Bobby Shew, Alex Acuna, Emil Richards, Shelly Manne, Bud Shank, William O. “Bill” Smith, Fred Radke, Mike Vax and Gary Herbig, just to name a few. Three of Collier and Dean’s own albums have received much international critical acclaim including "Whistling Midgets" (Inner City Records) and "Duets" (Origin Records), nominated by Earshot Magazine in 2005 for jazz album of the year. Collier & Dean released their third album in 2014, "Sleek Buick" (Origin Records), featuring several outstanding musicians including Alex Acuña, Don Grusin, Ernie Watts, Gary Herbig and Allen Vizzutti. The album received widespread jazz and contemporary music radio airplay throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

Collier & Dean: Duets

Read "Duets" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 24, 2005

Ringing right in the middle of Duets, the new release by mallet man (vibes and marimba player) Tom Collier and bassist Dan Dean, is the unlikely--for a jazz set--Jagger/Richards tune, “What A Shame." It's an instrumental here, of course, but on the Rolling Stones version, the lyric goes: What a shame, nothing seems to be going right...It's a nice take on the tune, but the sentiment doesn't ring true for Collier and ...

"Together, Collier and Dean make an ideal team with Sleek Buick being an easily recommended set of their brand of creative jazz." - SCOTT YANOW, Jazz on Record.

"...vibist Tom Collier and bassist Dan Dean bring together a varied and variegated collection of winsome and pulsating sounds." - GEORGE W. HARRIS, Jazz Weekly.

"...they've created a sound that is compellingly different - like the push and pull of electric bass bumping and tagging at the vibraphone radiance - and everything seems to be going just right..." - DAN McCLENAGHAN, All About Jazz.

"Speaking of technical brilliance..." - Patrick MacDONALD, Seattle Times