Tom's new Adventure Music recording Southern Exposure, the latest documentation of his Brazilian and jazz influences, features Toninho Horta, Romero Lubambo, Dave Kikoski, Kenny Werner,Tommy Campbell, Jamey Haddad, Kip Reed, Tony Marino, Frank Colon and Jeremy Steig, Roseanna Vitro, Chris McNulty and Full Voice.
Tom Lellis began singing professionally at the age of 15 in Cleveland, Ohio. By age 21 he was the "house singer" at the 5th largest nightclub in the U.S. (Three Rivers Inn , Syracuse NY) with a big band on bills with Ray Charles and Gregory Hines and later in clubs across the U.S. including Las Vegas' Frontier Hotel. Tom began intensive piano studies at age 24 with Bill Dobbins while performing together. Three years later he was opening for Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Evans, Jimmy Smith and other jazz greats. After moving to New York his versatility as singer and singer/pianist allowed Tom to perform in venues from the Blue Note to the Millennium at the Waldorf Astoria leading his big band as well as touring the U.S. and Europe. As a lyricist, he first put lyrics to and recorded works by McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Brubeck and others. His debut album on Inner City Records in 1981 became a fixture in London's jazz discos and featured world-class musicians, drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Eddie Gomez. Double Entendre, also with these musicians, was released in 1991 in the U.S. and in Japan where the press sighted him as "rare and gifted" and for "producing an ideal vocal form". With the release of his 1993 Concord recording Taken to Heart, Tom expanded to Brazilian music. The collaboration with guitarist and composer, Toninho Horta resulted in "Mountain Flight" and inclusion in the Latin Real Book and CD, two more inclusions in the All Jazz Real Book (Sher ) and on the new CD Southern Exposure. Concord's Jazz By The Fire CD released in 2000 features Tom. He was voted to the Down Beat International Critic's Poll and dubbed by numerous writers and critics as a "triple threat". Singing Jazz, The Singers and their Styles (Miller-Freeman) contains his quotes and he has taught as Guest Professor at Arts and Music University in Graz, Austria. Tom's release, Skylark is with the world's preeminent jazz orchestra, the 52-piece, stringed, Netherlands Metropole Orchestra conducted by John Clayton Jr. with orchestrations by Grammy winner Vince Mendoza and others has been called the "most requested recording in years" at New York's WBGO > radio. He sings his works and lyric versions and contributes arrangement concepts of standards on this CD. Tom's new Adventure Music recording Southern Exposure, the latest documentation of his Brazilian and jazz influences, features Toninho Horta, Romero Lubambo, Dave Kikoski, Kenny Werner,Tommy Campbell, Jamey Haddad, Kip Reed, Tony Marino, Frank Colon and Jeremy Steig, Roseanna Vitro, Chris McNulty and Full Voice.
