Tom Richeson is an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where he served as Jazz Studies Coordinator for 20 years. He also serves as Doyen with International Cultural Exchange (ICX), an organization that promotes cross-cultural exchanges in the arts and education for the purposes of enlightenment, understanding and compassion. ICX helps facilitate international performance tours, cross-cultural teaching/mentoring opportunities and peer networking for artists and educators. As a tr 
umpeter Tom’s performed with many jazz artists, including Pharoah Sanders, Stan Samole, Art Porter, Charles Thomas,
Ted Ludwig, Stefano Sabatini, Jerry Coker, Mark Boling, Donald Brown, Jon Hamar, Jim Self, and Frank Sinatra, with Buddy Rich and Ella Fitzgerald (both with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra), and on tours with many pop groups, including The Jacksons, Diana Ross, Lou Rawls, and The O’Jays. In academic settings he’s performed with many jazz artists, most notably, Jack DeJohnette, Maria Schneider, Gary Foster, Carl Fontana, Victor Wooten, Alvin Batiste, The Mark Boling Trio, and Airto Moriera. He also plays MIDI wind controllers. Tom received Bachelor of Music (1973) and Master of Music (1982) degrees from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Honors include induction into the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame (2014), Visiting Professorships at Qingdao and Binzhou Universities in China (2014), and a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Fellowship (1986). He was the first guest student instrumentalist to ever appear with the United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C. (1969). Tom is the lead author of The Mystery of Music, 2012 McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions and a contributing author of The Jerry Coker Figure Reading Series – Rhythmic Studies Of Today’s Music, 1987 Studio PR Columbia Pictures Publications. Recordings include A Tribute to Jerry Coker (2005) and Jazz Tracks (2014). A Jazz Tracks review at www.allaboutjazz.com received 4 1/2 out of 5 stars http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=49627 Mr. Richeson endorses Torpedo Bags.
UA Little Rock Website: http://ualr.edu/music/index.php/home/faculty/tom-richeson/ CDBaby Website: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/tomricheson
E-mail: dtricheson@ualr.edu
Tom Richeson’s Courses
MUPR 2228, 4228 Improvisation (55 minute weekly private lessons) Prerequisite: Consent of Instructor (requires an audition, contact the instructor). Study of application and principles of jazz improvisation, including nomenclature, chord progressions, chord scales, patterns, melodic development, and solo transcription.
MUHL 3351 History of Rock A study of the evolution of rock music from its pre-rock origins to the present.
MUHL 3361 Jazz History and Styles A study of the development and styles of jazz music and its principal exponents.
MUHL 2305 Introduction to Music Introduction to the creative process and history of music, vocabulary and descriptive terms used in the musical arts, and how to write about them.
Discography/Videography (leader)
Tom Richeson, Jazz Tracks (2014), BubHut Records 1103 NOTE: Review by Senior Editor C. Michael Bailey at www.allaboutjazz.com received 4 ½ stars out of five. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/jazz-tracks-tom-richeson-self-produced-review-by-c-michael-bailey.php
Tom Richeson & Friends, A Tribute to Jerry Coker (2004)
Tom Richeson, Goose Bumps (1991) NOTE: Reviewed in Home and Studio Recording (October 1991) by multiple Grammy-Award winning recording engineer and producer Al Schmitt.
Tom Richeson Jazz Sextet, Live at Trimble Studio (1986) National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Fellowship Video
Little Rock Jazz Machine and UA Little Rock Trojazz, Live at the Afterthought (1987) UA Little Rock Records 02. Community and University Big Bands directed by Richeson
Little Rock Jazz Machine, Goose Bumps (1986) UA Little Rock Records 01. Community-University Big Band directed by Richeson
Discography (sideman)
Jednom Tamo (One Day There), Ivan Spicak, produced in Croatia. Bono Records, HDS/BIEM CDBR011
Thanksgiving: A Time to Remember (2002) FamilyLife Production
Mark Tedder with the Worshiplanet Band, Ascend (2001)
Arkansas Original – A Showcase of Some of Arkansas’ Finest Musical Artistry (2001)
World Wide Worship with Mark Tedder, Declare (2000)
World Wide Worship with Mark Tedder, Calling All Nations (1999)
Anthony Thompson, Three Bags Full (1996)
Bill Scarlett, Jazz From the University of Tennessee (1993) UTCD 001
Gary P. Nunn, Border States (1987, Big Records)
The Killer Bees, Scratch the Surface (1985, Beehive Records BH 1001)
Charlie Spivak & His Orchestra – Now! 1981 (1981, Circle Records CLP-17)
Selected Quotes about Tom
a gift of winds
- Ellis Widner, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
musicianship is of a high caliber …the material is superior!
- Al Schmitt, Grammy award winning engineer
beautiful, full-bodied, and sincere.
- Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
impressed me tremendously
- George T. Simon, author
Inspired playing, arrangements, orchestration, and tasteful wind controller.
- Stan Samole, Toronto, Canada recording artist
Permit us awe!
- Michael Keckhaver, Little Rock Spectrum Weekly
great control and mastery of the EVI.
- Matt Traum, Patchman Music
master of the art form. You sound like a fish in water with [the electric funk] stuff.
- Beau Bledsoe, Kansas City recording and solo artist
beautiful music from the heart.
- Hans Stiritz, Arkansas cinematographer, author, and composer
channeling Miles Davis — beautiful!
- Mark Boling, recording artist, University of Tennessee Jazz Studies Professor
mastery of the EVI and Trumpet, impressed with his writing, BRAVO!
- Jim Self, recording artist/University of Southern California Music Professor
masterful mood painter as a composer and arranger.
- Michael Parkinson, jazz artist/Director, Middle Tennessee State University School of Music
maintains the integrity and pureness of jazz, while weaving a tapestry of modernity
- Mark Tedder, Worshiplanet
one the few players who can burn though a set of complicated chord changes and still maintain a sense of beauty and grace.
- Tom Strait, recording artist/Minnesota State University Moorhead Jazz Studies Professor
