Biography
Born on 9 September 1966 in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, England, Tomlinson spent his formative years in Northumberland before enrolling at Oxford University to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. While pursuing those studies he took up the clarinet and saxophone—chiefly the tenor—and cultivated a deepening passion for jazz. After graduation he spent a further year at London’s Guildhall School of Music, where he began to make his presence felt on the city’s jazz circuit. His standing rose swiftly, leading to collaborations with Matt Wates, David Newton and Michael Garrick; the last of these associations produced the 1997 recording session For Love Of Duke And Ronnie.
Throughout the 1990s he regularly fronted his own quartet on extensive British tours. He is married to vocalist Stacey Kent and frequently shares the bandstand with her, contributing to the warmly received Candid Records albums issued under her name. On tenor saxophone his work is deeply gratifying: ballads receive a tender, emotionally direct treatment, while faster numbers are propelled by vigorous intensity. In support of Kent he proves both sensitive and harmonically resourceful. Tomlinson has thereby sustained the tradition of mainstream tenor saxophone into the twenty-first century.
Throughout the 1990s he regularly fronted his own quartet on extensive British tours. He is married to vocalist Stacey Kent and frequently shares the bandstand with her, contributing to the warmly received Candid Records albums issued under her name. On tenor saxophone his work is deeply gratifying: ballads receive a tender, emotionally direct treatment, while faster numbers are propelled by vigorous intensity. In support of Kent he proves both sensitive and harmonically resourceful. Tomlinson has thereby sustained the tradition of mainstream tenor saxophone into the twenty-first century.
Albums
