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Tom Coster

During his tenure with Santana in the 1970’s, Tom Coster made his mark as a keyboard player and composer of versatility and power. Detroit-born and San Francisco-raised, Coster played piano and accordion as a youth, continuing his studies through college and a productive five-year stint as a musician in the Air Force. He then invaded the Bay Area club scene, soon acquiring his reputation as a standout keyboard player. After successful tenures with the rock group The Loading Zone and jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo, Coster was asked by Carlos Santana in 1972 to bring more jazz fusion influence to that phenomenally successful band.

This historic alliance produced six classic Santana albums — "Caravanserai," "Welcome," "Lotus," "Borboletta," "Amigos," and "Moonflower." Coster also performed on three Devadip Carlos Santana solo albums (including "Illuminations" with Alice Coltrane). "Europa," "Flor D’Luna" and "Dance Sister Dance" are three timeless examples of Coster’s contributions to these projects.

After amicably parting with Santana, Coster joined forces with drummer Billy Cobham’s band for a brief stint before taking a sabbatical from the music business to spend more time with his family. He re- entered the recording world with two critically acclaimed solo albums, "T.C." and "Ivory Expeditions." Still sought after, these albums feature performances by guitarist Joaquin Lievano, Randy Jackson on bass and Steve Smith on drums. Additionally, "Ivory Expeditions" marked the first recorded collaboration with Tom’s son, Tom Coster Jr.

Coster rejoined Santana in 1983 and 1986, contributing to the "Freedom" album as well as the 20-year anthology, "Viva Santana." When former Journey drummer Steve Smith formed the progressive fusion band Vital Information, Tom was drafted to play keyboards.

(So ends the "official" Tom Coster biography. Tom adds the following notes and updates to his storied career.)

Since Steve Smith was off and on again with Journey, there was no real touring schedule for “Vital” and I wanted to pursue my own recording career, so after leaving Fantasy Records, I got a deal with “Headfirst Records” and began a new recording career. Their intention was of course to sell records and my two projects with them was NAC (easy listening) and actually did quite well. Both CD’s charted in the top 10 on the Contemporary Jazz Billboard Chart. The two projects were “Did Jah’ Miss Me” and “From Me To You” which were eventually picked up by JVC.

My fusion fans fell left out,as I knew they would be, and I felt somewhat depressed about the whole industry since radio stations weren't playing any fusion (and they still don’t, for that matter!).

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Radio & Podcasts

Bassist Gary Willis, Alex Machacek and a feature on Tone Centre records

Read "Bassist Gary Willis, Alex Machacek and a feature on Tone Centre records" reviewed by Len Davis


Jeff Sipe Trio, Gary Willis, FAT, John McLaughlin. Plus a feature on Tone Centre Records with Vital Tech Tones 2, Cause and Effect, Uncle Moe's Space Ranch and Extraction .Playlist Jeff Sipe-Trio “Home Town" from Jeff Sipe Trio (Abstract Logix) 00:00 Gary Willis “Disconnectivity" from Retro (Abstract Logix) 07:14 FAT “Holiday In Tamelin" from # Awesome (Abstract Logix) 14:31 John McLaughlin “Little Miss Valley" from The Boston Record (Abstract Logixl) 21:40 VTT 2 “The Litigants" from Vital Tech ...

1
Radio & Podcasts

Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Erik Truffaz, Steve Smith and Vital Information and Tom Coster

Read "Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Erik Truffaz, Steve Smith and Vital Information and Tom Coster" reviewed by Len Davis


Cuban piano and keyboard player Gonzalo Rubalcaba from Paseo, French Trumpeter Erik Truffaz, from Canada Alain Caron and intense fusion from Tom Coster and Gary Willis.Playlist Gonzalo Rubalcaba “Paseo Con Fula" from Paseo (Blue Note) 00:00 Erik Truffaz “Ghost Drummer" from Saloua (EMI) 06:19 Alain Caron “Trouble" from Play (Norac) 12:30 Steve Smith & Vital Information “High Wire" from Come On In (Tone Centre) 18:47 Nguyen Le “Funk Rai" from Maghreb And Friends (ACT) 25:03 Yellow Jackets “Youth ...

184
Album Review

Tom Coster: Ivory Expedition

Read "Ivory Expedition" reviewed by Dave Hughes


This CD presents two albums recorded by Tom Coster in 1981 and 1983. These sessions took place just a few years after Coster's six-year stint with Santana. Many hints of the music Coster composed and performed with Santana show through on some songs, such as the ballads "Magical Moments" and "I Give My Heart to You", although guitarist Joaquin Lievano (fresh from three years of high-octane fusion shredding with Jean-Luc Ponty) often lends the tunes a harder-edged fusion bite than ...

287
Album Review

Tom Coster: Ivory Expedition

Read "Ivory Expedition" reviewed by Ed Kopp


Back in the early '80s, when I was a beer-swilling, poverty-stricken, disco-hating, post-college naif, my favorite kind of music was jazz-fusion. My early-80s self was particularly smitten by Tom Coster's first two solo records. I regretted having to sell those albums to a graduate student prior to one of my many cross-town moves. When I learned this summer that Fantasy was reissuing both albums on a single CD, I thought it might be fun to see if the music still ...

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