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Tom Guarna
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Tom Guarna
Tom Guarna | Platonic Solids
Tom Guarna | Two Circles
BIO
Grammy-nominated guitarist, composer and arranger Tom Guarna is an unparalleled artist, incorporating many styles (Jazz, Funk, Latin, Soul, Blues, Pop, R&B, World Music) into his own blend of unique and engaging music. Guarna, described by Tom Schnabel (Rhythm Planet) as “demonstrat[ing] . . . superb chops and melodic invention” and by John Kelman (All About Jazz) as having a warm, full-bodied tone . . . [with] a touch of grit, asserting a most contemporary approach to music often rooted in the mainstream— albeit with a disposition that runs as broad as it goes deep” earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in 2008, and a Master of Music Degree at The Juilliard School in 2010. He is known the world over, having played on five continents with some of the top names in Jazz and Rock, invoking the voices of Masters of Old while creating fresh, innovative musical stories.
Guarna’s is a story worth telling: he began his musical studies at age fifteen, emulating his father’s Classic Rock guitar playing in their Staten Island, NY home. Tom rapidly demonstrated the dexterity and creativity to play and compose beautifully, playing gigs on the NY club scene and studying classical guitar and composition at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in 1986, additionally fine-tuning his education with John Abercrombie. He was on a promising career trajectory when his world crumbled at age 21. Tom’s father was brutally murdered, and he had to put his career and college studies on hold while he helped get his mother and brother get back on their feet, enduring grueling years in court, never receiving justice. Tom’s way of escaping the ugliness of reality, while pouring his pain into his music, was to delve into the world of Science Fiction, and later, Sacred Geometry. Sci-Fi offered some hope that the universe held other possibilities, and Sacred Geometry offered Tom a way of making sense and giving order to a world which seemed to fragment before his young eyes.
The inspiration for his fascinating 2019 album “Spirit Science,” with Aaron Parks on piano, Joe Martin on bass, Justin Faulkner on drums and Ben Wendel on saxophone and bassoon, comes from this fascination with Sacred Geometry, otherwise known as “Spirit Science”.
Throughout the 1990s, Guarna worked with several jazz bands, and joined Blood Sweat and Tears in 1995, touring extensively with them until 1998. Tom has forged his own voice as a modern jazz guitarist, performing with a wide range of artists including Wallace Roney, Stanley Clarke, George Cables, Mark Turner, Branford Marsalis, Randy Brecker, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Mulgrew Miller, Fred Wesley, Mike Clark, Uri Caine, The Allman Brothers, The Yellowjackets, and Gary Bartz. He was a featured artist on over thirty albums, and composed “If You Dare,” a Funk-Rock song on Lenny White's 2010 Anomaly CD.
Guarna has toured five continents with his own quartets and as a top sideman in several exciting groups led by Lenny White, E.J. Strickland, George Colligan, Les McCann, and Manuel Valera’s New Cuban Express. Guarna’s work with New Cuban Express earned him a Grammy Award Nomination in 2013.
As composer and leader, Guarna has recorded: Get Together (2005), Out from the Underground (2007), Wingspan (2008), Major Minor (2009), Bittersweet (2011), and the hard-grooving Rush (2014), which garnered DownBeat magazine’s acclaim for the “emotion, tension, surprise and passion” in Tom’s playing, and “Guarna's chameleon-like ability to adapt to any context, all while never losing sight of his own inimitable musical personality” by John Kelman in All About Jazz (Nov 2017).
Website
Quotes
"If you are looking for some new New York type of jazz, high energy with compelling yet soulful compositions and an all star cast, then look no further. Tom Guarna's latest album, 'Rush,' is guaranteed to satisfy your inner jazz critic. Guarna is one of a new breed of musicians who has studied the traditions, has skills to burn, but is not afraid to push the envelope and go outside the box." - JazzTruth
"An unequivocally modern record that focuses on both his compositional acumen and a broader textural palette . . . it's about time that the secret already known amongst musicians finally becomes public knowledge." - John Kelman, All About Jazz.com