Home » Member Page
Tom Barton
“Barton’s voice is a soothingly smooth tenor … always with profound expression, drawing on historic examples of jazz singers but injecting his personality and interpretations.” – The Weekend Australian
About Me
Tom sings prose and wordless music with the spirit of an
instrumentalist. Featuring contemporary jazz improvisation,
extended vocal techniques, and live electronic looping and effects
processing, Tom’s music is adventurous, philosophical and
delivered profoundly.
Graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor
of Music Performance (Honours) in 2010, Tom was invited to study a
Master of Jazz voice at the Manhattan School of Music in 2013.
Tom’s performance highlights include The Melbourne International
Jazz Festival, The Sydney Opera House and ABC Radio National’s The
Music Show.
Tom has been awarded grants including the Australia Council for
the Arts Artstart, and Skills and Development, which funded
professional development in NYC with vocalist and composer Theo
Bleckmann.
Tom’s debut album Aspirations was released in July 2014 to
critical acclaim. A 4.5-star review in The Weekend Australian
heralded the album as, “a breakthrough in leading-edge jazz vocals
… the arrival of a unique new talent.” Over $9000 of the album’s
funding was raised by fans and supporters worldwide through the
crowdfunding platform Pozible.
Aspirations was shortlisted for the 2015 Jazz Bell Awards Best
Australian Jazz Vocal Album.
Tom has worked and recorded with artists including Barney McAll,
Ethno Tekh, Stephen Magnusson, The RaaH Project, Gian Slater &
Invenio, Andy Sugg, Philip Rex, Fran Swinn, and composers David
Shea, Byron Scullin and Andrew Byrne.
After living and composing music in Yangon, Myanmar, during the
first half of 2015, Tom released a new work, Connections, in late
2015. The album is a collaboration with guitarist/composer Diego
Villalta and was recorded in Osaka, Japan, in May 2015 while the
duo were on tour with The Hold.
“Barton’s voice is a soothingly smooth tenor … always with
profound expression, drawing on historic examples of jazz singers
but injecting his personality and interpretations.”
– The Weekend Australian
“Poetry in motion with beautifully clear-headed vocals.”
– All About Jazz
“An honest musician, yes, but also a fiercely talented one.”
– Australian Musician Network
