Tom Garling

Tom Garling performs a trombone solo with the Birch Creek Academy Band. He can be seen at Birch Creek in big band jazz concerts July 21 through 31.

Jazz trombone faculty member Tom Garling is not a newcomer to Birch Creek. During the early 1980s he was a trombone student and teaching assistant at the music school in Egg Harbor.

“Those were the years of Jim Dutton, Tom Streeter, Nick Snyder – all those guys,” Garling remembers. “One year I came for six weeks.” He laughs, “I attended four weeks of jazz, and came two weeks early to work as a groundskeeper during the symphony session. It helped with my tuition, and I loved being here.”

The talented trombonist studied arranging and composition at the Berklee College of Music from 1983-1985. In 1986, at the age of 20, Garling left Berklee to tour with Buddy Rich. He was on the last touring band before Buddy died. Buddy once said of him in an interview in Stockholm, Sweden: “Tom Garling is going to have a very, very strong future in jazz.”

In 1987, Garling enrolled at the University of Miami where he received an undergraduate degree in jazz performance and a master’s degree in jazz composition and arranging. In the meantime, he played with such greats as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet, Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, and Randy Brecker, to name a few. After graduation, he stayed one more year to teach improvisation classes, direct big bands, and coach small groups.

Garling then began a six-year-tour in 1991 with Canadian bandleader and trumpet player Maynard Ferguson. He moved back to the Chicago area in 1998, and returned to Birch Creek as a faculty member in 1999. He has been back to Birch Creek each year since then.

Along with his own album, Maynard Ferguson Presents Tom Garling, he is featured as soloist, composer/arranger, and guitarist on numerous albums. Garling currently resides in the Chicago area, and is highly sought after around the world as a recording artist, composer and arranger, teacher, clinician and professional musician at any capacity.