Tom Varner

Tom Varner (b. Morristown, New Jersey, United States, June 17, 1957) is an American jazz horn (French horn) player and composer.

Varner holds a B.M. degree (1979) from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied jazz improvisation and composition with Ran Blake, George Russell, and Jaki Byard, and horn with Thomas Newell. He also studied briefly in 1976 with jazz horn pioneer Julius Watkins. Varner also holds an M.A. (2005) from the City College of New York, where he studied with Jim McNeely, Scott Reeves, and John Patitucci.

He has performed and recorded with Steve Lacy, Dave Liebman, George Gruntz, John Zorn, Bobby Watson, La Monte Young, Miles Davis with Quincy Jones, Bobby Previte, Jim McNeely, McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman, the Mingus Orchestra, Franz Koglmann, and appears on over 70 albums. He also has 11 albums out as a composer/leader, with sidemen such as Steve Wilson, Tony Malaby, Ed Jackson, Ellery Eskelin, Tom Rainey, Cameron Brown, Drew Gress, Matt Wilson, Kenny Barron, Victor Lewis, Fred Hopkins, and Billy Hart. Varner has been in the "Down Beat" Critics Poll Top Ten annually since the mid-1990s. He has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Doris Duke Foundation, and has been a resident at the MacDowell and Blue Mountain Arts Colonies.

Varner lived in New York City from 1979 to 2005, and now lives in Seattle.

Discography

As leader

*1981 - "Tom Varner Quartet" (Soul Note)
*1983 - "Motion/Stillness" (Soul Note)
*1985/1997 - "Jazz French Horn" (Soul Note)
*1987 - "Covert Action" (New Note)
*1991 - "Long Night Big Day" (New World)
*1993 - "The Mystery of Compassion" (Soul Note)
*1997 - "Martian Heartache" (Soul Note)
*1998 - "The Window Up Above" (New World)
*1998 - "The Swiss Duos" (Unit)
*1999 - "Swimming" (OmniTone)
*2001 - "Second Communion" (OmniTone)

External links

* [http://www.tomvarnermusic.com/ Tom Varner official site]
* [http://www.omnitone.com/swimming/varner-interview.htm Tom Varner interview] by Frank Tafuri