I was born in Manchester, England. My musical interest started at about the age of 13 years where l followed my brothers footsteps into the school band which later became the Ashton on Mersey Youth Showband. My brother played the Trombone whilst l played Alto and later the Tenor saxophone. One of my first regular gigs with this band was a residency on Morecambe pier every Sunday evening. I started singing at the age of about 16. Moved to London at around 24. Recorded a few tracks for Atlantic Records and chased record deals for a while. I worked as in house programmer and engineer for Morrison- Leahy Music. l met Nigel Goulding and formed the duo 'Step'. Nigel is a great co-songwriting partner We released a jazz dance track called 'If' which did well in Japan.
More recently.
I happened to be reading a copy of The Singer magazine and noticed a jazz vocalist competition in the back pages and not really taking note of all the text (especially the Jazz Diva bit), duly sent them a copy of a couple of jazz standards l recorded earlier in the year. A few weeks later l received a call saying that my entry had been accepted for THE MARION MONTGOMERY AWARDS 2002 and I was invited to sing at the Ventnor Jazz Divas Festival Isle of Wight, with the house trio. Only when l arrived at Ventnor, was it apparent that l was the only male singer. I was the token bloke in an all female Diva competition! l won a special award at the festival, but far more important than that for me was the chance to perform with players such as Laurie Holloway, Jeff Clyne, Trevor Tomkins, Nick Weldon and Malcolm Edmonstone.
Just completed 2nd CD with Malcolm Edmonstone Trio
Awards
Special award winner at the The Marion Montgomery Awards
2002
Gear
Neumann Kms 103 for live
Neumann TLM 49
"Tom Rust has a voice of great character, with the subtlety to
make swing songs really swing and enough edge to save
ballads from blandness. Saints & Singers is his debut album -
an excellent programme of classic
but not over-performed songs, superbly accompanied by the
Malcolm Edmonstone Trio."
Dave Gelly - Jazz critic for The Observer
"vocals are smooth but expressive in the same way as Jon
Lucien's. What more could you ask for?"
ab, Music Week
"This is great - smooth and contemporary take on classics
Tom is definitely a contender for the Jamie Cullum crown, but
the feeling is from this brilliant release is that Tom has
something a bit deeper to offer than JC's
light bubbly approach - more a late night burner; mixing
classic approach and contempoary sound - GET IT !!"
Read more
"Tom Rust has a voice of great character, with the subtlety to
make swing songs really swing and enough edge to save
ballads from blandness. Saints & Singers is his debut album -
an excellent programme of classic
but not over-performed songs, superbly accompanied by the
Malcolm Edmonstone Trio."
Dave Gelly - Jazz critic for The Observer
"vocals are smooth but expressive in the same way as Jon
Lucien's. What more could you ask for?"
ab, Music Week
"This is great - smooth and contemporary take on classics
Tom is definitely a contender for the Jamie Cullum crown, but
the feeling is from this brilliant release is that Tom has
something a bit deeper to offer than JC's
light bubbly approach - more a late night burner; mixing
classic approach and contempoary sound - GET IT !!"
Jazz Monthly
ʻHe's actually very good, a far better singer than Jamie Cullum
and more individual than the somewhat overrated Michael
Buble. Excellent trio too, with Malcolm Edmonstone providing
fine piano. I'd certainly buy Rust's
records.ʼ
Fred Dellar
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