Tom Collier

Tom Collier

Musicians | Instrument: Vibraphone | Location: Seattle

Collier is so well-equipped academically that his sleight-of-hand solos already are a fascinating study.
—Leonard Feather, Los Angeles Times

Updated: April 10, 2022

Born: June 30, 1948

In a career spanning 60+ years, Tom Collier celebrated his first public performance playing the marimba at the age of 5 in 1954 and marked the 60th anniversary of that performance with a 2014 concert at Meany Hall Studio Theater on the University of Washington campus. The concert featured several guest artists including guitarist Larry Coryell, mallet virtuoso Emil Richards, clarinetist William O. "Bill" Smith, drummer Moyes Lucas, pianist Marc Seales, and longtime musical cohort/electric bassist Dan Dean.

After a six year gap between album projects, Tom released "The Color Of Wood" (Summit Records, April 2022) comprised of mostly original compositions written for and performed exclusively on the marimba. Although some of the album's tracks feature layered marimba parts (via overdubbing techniques), many other songs were recorded in a single pass - "true" solo performances. The album was recorded over a three year period in two different Seattle-area studios on three different model marimbas. No other instruments were used in making the album, and Collier is the only performer.

Through the years, Collier has appeared in concert and on recordings with many important jazz and popular artists including Eddie Daniels, Ry Cooder, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Roger Kellaway, Emil Richards, Don Grusin, Alex Acuña, Frank Zappa, Ralph Humphrey, Victor Feldman, Howard Roberts, Ernie Watts, Dave Holland, Cal Tjader, Shelly Manne, Joe Porcaro, Laurindo Almeida, Buddy DeFranco, Cuong Vu, Diane Schurr, Peggy Lee, Natalie Cole, Morganna King, Herb Ellis, Bill Mays, Bobby Shew, Ernestine Anderson, Mannheim Steamroller, Sammy Davis, Jr., Barbra Streisand, Johnny Mathis, Olivia Newton- John, The Beach Boys, The Mills Brothers, Della Reese and many more.

In addition to his latest album, Collier has released several jazz albums as leader or co-leader beginning with "Whistling Midgets" (with long-time musical cohort Dan Dean) for Inner City Records in 1981. Collier and Dean's 2005 album, "Duets" on Origin Records, was nominated for "2005 Jazz Album of the Year" by Earshot Magazine. Other recordings include "Illusion" (1988, T.C. Records), "Pacific Aire" (1990, Nebula Records), and "Mallet Jazz" (2004, Origin Records). Collier & Dean released their third album, "Sleek Buick", in August, 2014 on the Origin label featuring several significant jazz artists including saxophonists Ernie Watts and Gary Herbig, trumpeter Allen Vizzutti, pianist Don Grusin, and drummers Alex Acuña and Ted Poor. "Sleek Buick" received extensive national and international radio airplay spending 15 weeks on the JazzWeek Top 200 radio chart.

in 2014, Tom was awarded a Royalty Research Grant by the University of Washington to produce three new recordings in three different settings: (1) a solo vibes/marimba album ("Alone In The Studio", Origin Records, April 2015), (2) a recording of original jazz compositions for quartet featuring guitarists Bill Frisell and Larry Coryell entitled "Across The Bridge" (Origin Records, November 2015), and (3) an experimental free improvisation trio album, "Impulsive Illuminations" (Origin Records, April 2016), featuring trumpeter Cuong Vu, trombonist Stuart Dempster, drummer Ted Poor, clarinetist William O. Smith, and pianist Richard Karpen.

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4
Album Review

Tom Collier: Impulsive Illuminations

Read "Impulsive Illuminations" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Vibraphonist Tom Collier offers up something quite different from his previous Origin Records CDs, where he covered the jazz standards like John Coltrane's “Giant Steps; Miles Davis' “So What," and some seemingly unlikely pop hits: The Rolling Stones “What a Shame" and Brian Wilson's “God Only Knows," alongside his own always engaging compositions. With Impulsive Illuminations, the thirty year University of Washington educator (now retired) explores the world of improvisation with pianist Richard Karpen, in the trio mode, with five ...

3
Album Review

Tom Collier: Across The Bridge

Read "Across The Bridge" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Ruminations on the past, musical or otherwise, are often weighed down by the sediment of sentiment. But it certainly doesn't have to be that way. Looking back can provide an outlet for the imagination to take control, and vibraphonist Tom Collier seems well aware of that. On Across The Bridge, Collier revisits his youth, delivering nine original numbers that touch on a childhood spent on the opposite side of the West Seattle Bridge from where he currently resides. It's a ...

3
Album Review

Tom Collier: Alone in the Studio

Read "Alone in the Studio" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Percussionist Tom Collier has the solo touch. His previous recording, Tom Collier: Plays Haydn, Mozart, Telemann and Others (Origin, 2012) had the vibraphonist and educator making his way through a Baroque and classical recitals to great effect. Presently, Collier strolls through some originals and standards and not-so-standard standards making up this most inventive and clever collection of songs. Alone in the Studio presents Collier in the most intimate of settings, as a solo artist. He has fun ...

26
Album Review

Tom Collier: Plays Haydn, Mozart, Telemann and Others

Read "Plays Haydn, Mozart, Telemann and Others" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Tom Collier is a bit of a character as, can be attested by the YouTube videos below. He has served as Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Washington since 1980. In 2011, he was appointed Chair of Jazz Studies at the school, and was awarded the Adelaide D. Currie Cole Endowed Professorship in the School of Music for the academic years 2011-2014. He is, indeed, having a good year. His last recording, Mallett Fantasique (Origin Classical, 2010), received ...

209
Album Review

Collier & Dean: Duets

Read "Duets" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


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 ...

91
Album Review

Tom Collier: Mallet Jazz

Read "Mallet  Jazz" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Wander into the parking lot of a high school marching band field tournament, through a labyrinth school buses and picnic tables, into throngs of young musicians--teenagers in small packs cruising on foot, gossiping, flirting, maybe throwing a football around as a cold November dusk settles in--and there always seems to be a backdrop of percussion, impromptu practice sessions, the marimbas and the vibraphones ringing out. It's a sound that carries in the brisk fall air, a sound full of bounce ...

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69

Performance / Tour

"Winter Vibes" -- Tom Collier, vibes, and Marc Seales, piano

"Winter Vibes" -- Tom Collier, vibes, and Marc Seales, piano

Source: All About Jazz


"Collier ... is so well-equipped academically that his sleight-of-hand solos already are a fascinating study." -Leonard Feather, Los Angeles Times-

"Collier’s mellow reverberation on the vibes has a graceful, ruminative sway. He maintains the song structure, but with freewheeling agility." - Scott Yanow, Jazz Historian and Journalist-

"Tom Collier, a great vibes player...." -Emil Richards autobiography, "Wonderful World Of Percussion"-

"Tom Collier ... one of the best jazz vibraphonists on the planet." -Scott Mercado interview, Modern Drummer Magazine-

"Collier turns phrases and builds lines that set a new musical standard for the vibraphone." -F. Michael Combs, Percussive Notes/Percussive Arts Society-

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Artists who share similar musical characteristics to Tom Collier.

Roy Ayers
vibraphone
Gary Burton
vibraphone
Bill Frisell
guitar, electric
Lionel Hampton
vibraphone
Bobby Hutcherson
vibraphone
Milt Jackson
vibraphone
Mike Mainieri
vibraphone
Red Norvo
vibraphone
Cal Tjader
vibraphone

Music

Odious Mode

From: Impulsive Illuminations
By Tom Collier

California Avenue

From: Sleek Buick
By Tom Collier