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Tom Heasley

B>Composer, Tuba, Didjeridu, Voice, Electronics, Loops, Throat Singing

The unique musical voice of Tom Heasley is heard internationally as composer, performer and recording artist. At live performances and in recordings, Heasley gathers the warp and woof of tuba, didjeridu, throat-singing, looping and electronics and weaves them into a musical tapestry of great originality and power. He creates “a rich and sonorous aural experience that flies in the face of all the dumb cliches about what tuba music is…” A true "father of invention", Heasley has turned his Achilles' heel - the tuba - into a force majeure.

From Silicon Valley to Siberia, Tom Heasley’s music has been featured on radio programs throughout the world, such as National Public Radio, Public Radio International, Carl Stone’s Ears Wide Open, John Schaefer’s New Sounds (WNYC), Kalvos and Damian’s New Music Bazaar, John Diliberto's Echoes, and BBC Radio's Mixing It and Late Junction. His music speaks to a diverse audience, from students at Oberlin conservatory to inmates of San Quentin prison. His appearance at festivals and venues include CEAIT, Sonic Circuits, The Gathering, The Knitting Factory, CBGBs, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

With his first solo CD, WHERE THE EARTH MEETS THE SKY (Hypnos 2001), Tom Heasley launched the art of tuba-playing into the twenty first century. He continued to liberate the tuba [one of the world’s most under-valued instrument ] with ON THE SENSATIONS OF TONE (Innova 2002.) His third solo offering, DESERT TRIPTYCH (Farfield Records, 2003), released by Southampton, England-based Farfield Records, was his first to feature the didjeridu, along with voice and electronics.

The winner of an Artist Fellowship in Musical Composition from the Arts Council of Silicon Valley, Heasley’s work has also been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, American Composers Forum, Meet The Composer, McKnight Foundation and ASCAP. In addition to his solo recordings, Tom has recorded for Tzadik, Leo, Hypnos, Innova, Music and Arts, New Albion, Old Gold and Farfield Records and has enjoyed collaborations with many artists of note, including Charlie Haden, Wadada Leo Smith, Malcolm Mooney (of Can), Eugene Chadbourne, Deep Listening Band, Gunther Hampel, Jeanne Lee, Bobby Bradford, John Carter, Alvin Curran, Don Preston, Daniel Lentz, Vinny Golia, Joe Catalano, Pauline Oliveros, David Gamper, the Merce Cunningham Dance Co., Lois V Vierk, Frederic Rzewski, Glenn Spearman, Gerry Hemingway, Stuart Dempster, Anne LeBaron, Gerry Hemingway, Jonathan Harvey and most recently, Toss Panos.

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Tom Heasley: A Passage to Sound

Read "Tom Heasley: A Passage to Sound" reviewed by Tobias Fischer


Tom HeasleyA Passage to SoundFull Bleed Music2008

---> Tom Heasley is sensitive about the way that people label his music--very sensitive in fact. We've been in regular contact ever since I first listened to Passages (Full Bleed Music, 2007), a disc filled to the brim with spacey, sensuous and eruptive duets between his 'Ambient Tuba' and Toss Panos' drums. But I'm unsure whether this music marks him as an intuitive composer or a meticulously ...

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…in comes Heasley sending his brass through the ringer, coating its decay in electronic mercury, stretching the fat tones outwards to infinity...reminiscent of ECM staples like Jan Garbarek and John Surman, two horn-men similarly in tune to mergers of the ancient and modern built upon deeply meditational edifices. The Squid's Ear

Like a slowed down deep jazz Bixobal Magazine

Juicy. Super Coolio.... Michael Landau

I love Tom's music. If you don't go to hear him whenya can, well, [it’s] your loss! David Torn/splattercell

Tom Heasley's mesmerizing loop-based, ambient tuba playing brings an ethereal beauty from the underrated instrument Joseph Woodard, L.A

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Primary Instrument

Tuba

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Tom Heasley: A...

Full Bleed Music
2008

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Passages

HighNote
2007

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