Saxophonist Tom Gullion brings a soulful performance style, sophisticated avant-garde sensibility, and quicksilver technique. His career has both periods of intense performance and artistic introspection.
Musician, saxophonist, and composer Tom Gullion has built a reputation as an intuitive, emotional, and melodic player. During the past two decades, his varied career has included periods of intense performance and also of introspective creativity, and he has emerged as a major force in the contemporary jazz scene.
Gullion grew up in the Indianapolis area, and first studied with master teachers Larry Kirkman and Harry Miedema. He went on to study with David N. Baker at Indiana University, where he cemented his foundation in bebop and modern jazz traditions with fellow students Bob Hurst, Shawn Pelton, Chris Botti, Scott Wendholt, Jack Wilkins, Eric Alexander and others.
When jazz trombone legend J.J. Johnson put together a new quintet in 1988, Gullion, at 22, joined the group along with Cedar Walton, Rufus Reid and Victor Lewis. After several successful U.S. tours, Gullion delayed his professional career to finish his studies with Baker at Indiana.
After his matriculation, Gullion toured the world with various acts, playing first in New York, and then moving to Spain, which served as his base for European performances with the Spanish jazz group Clunia, with whom he recorded a successful CD, Carpe Diem. Apart from his busy schedule with Clunia, Gullion also performed for several broadcast concerts; worked and recorded with the Baldo Martinez Quartet, an avant garde ensemble with no piano; and launched the Tom Gullion Trio.
Gullion moved to Chicago in 1995, and quickly established himself in the jazz scene there, which is how to came to record for Naim with the best players in the Chicago scene: John Moulder (guitar), Rob Amster (bass), Steve Gillis (drums), and Paul Wertico (drums).