Tom Gaebel

Germany's Tom Gaebel commands attention as a vocalist whose swinging retro pop and jazz style draws from crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. His primary renown stems from fronting his own big band, which has issued albums including Introducing: Myself in 2005, So Good to Be Me in 2014, and Perfect Day in 2018.

Born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, in 1975, Gaebel developed an early passion for music and took up drums, trombone, piano, glockenspiel, flute, and violin at different stages of his youth. While still in high school he participated in multiple ensembles, among them two big bands and the rock group Goresaw, which secured support slots for acts like the Donots and Jazzkantine. After completing jazz-vocal studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory with summa cum laude honors, he performed with outfits including the Young Sinatras and the Tobias Kremer Big Band, relocated to Cologne, and in 2005 assembled his own twelve-piece ensemble, Tom Gaebel & His Big Band. The group's debut, Introducing: Myself, blended standards with several originals by Gaebel; through numerous concerts and television spots he established himself as both a compelling swing and big-band director and a natural showman. A live DVD titled Live in Concert appeared in 2006.

Gaebel's follow-up, Good Life, arrived in 2007 and incorporated additional original material while prompting comparisons to Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, and Burt Bacharach. Don't Wanna Dance, released in 2008, expanded his range with arrangements that evoked vintage soul, whereas Music to Watch Girls By in 2010 reaffirmed his affinity for vocal-pop repertoire linked to Glen Campbell and Bob Crewe. Easy Christmas came soon afterward, and although So Good to Be Me did not surface until 2014, he maintained steady German television exposure in the intervening years. He resurfaced with the full-length Perfect Day in 2018.