Trevor Ramsey Tomkins (12 May 1941 – 9 September 2022) was a British jazz drummer best known for his work in a number of British bands in the 1970s, including
Gilgamesh
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.
Biography
Tomkins was born in London and studied music at the
Guildhall School of Music
The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...
. He initially learned to play trombone as a teenager before choosing drums on which he made his first professional appearance.
In 1962, he joined
Don Rendell
Donald Percy Rendell (4 March 1926 – 20 October 2015) was an English jazz musician and arranger. Mainly active as a tenor saxophonist, he also played soprano saxophone, flute, and clarinet.
Career
Rendell was born in Plymouth, England, an ...
working with the Rendell and
Ian Carr
Ian Carr (21 April 1933 – 25 February 2009) was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator. Carr performed and recorded with the Rendell-Carr quintet and jazz-fusion band Nucleus, and was an associate professor at the Guildhall ...
's quintet for seven years until 1969. He recorded several albums with pianist
Michael Garrick
Michael Garrick MBE (30 May 1933 – 11 November 2011)Peter VacheObituary: Michael Garrick ''The Guardian'', 15 November 2011 was an English jazz pianist and composer, and a pioneer in mixing jazz with poetry recitations and in the use of jazz ...
and Don Rendell in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the 1970s, he worked with
Ian Carr
Ian Carr (21 April 1933 – 25 February 2009) was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator. Carr performed and recorded with the Rendell-Carr quintet and jazz-fusion band Nucleus, and was an associate professor at the Guildhall ...
's
Nucleus
Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to:
*Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom
*Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA
Nucle ...
,
Giles Farnaby's Dream Band
Giles Farnaby's Dream Band was a collaboration between the early music ensemble St. George’s Canzona, Derby-based folk group The Druids, and Trevor Crozier’s 'Broken Consort'. They were backed by three jazz musicians: Jeff Clyne (bass guitar ...
,
David Becker
David Becker (born 20 October 1961) is an American jazz guitarist and leader of the David Becker Tribune. He is also a graduate of the Musicians Institute.
Career
David and his brother Bruce (drummer) formed the David Becker Tribune and toured ...
and
Henry Lowther's Quaternity. He was a popular choice for visiting musicians including
Sonny Stitt
Edward Hammond Boatner Jr. (February 2, 1924 – July 22, 1982), known professionally as Sonny Stitt, was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. Known for his warm tone, he was one of the best-documented saxophonists of his ...
,
Phil Woods
Philip Wells Woods (November 2, 1931 – September 29, 2015) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, and composer.
Biography
Woods was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. After inheriting a saxophone at age 12, he began ...
and
Lee Konitz
Leon Konitz (October 13, 1927 – April 15, 2020) was an American composer and alto saxophonist.
He performed successfully in a wide range of jazz styles, including bebop, cool jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Konitz's association with the cool jazz ...
. He appears on the 1971 album ''First Wind'' by
Frank Ricotti
Frank Ricotti (born 31 January 1949) is an English jazz vibraphonist and percussionist.
Early life and education
Ricotti was born in London, England. His father was a drummer. Bill Ashton, founder of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NY ...
and
Mike de Albuquerque
Mike de Albuquerque (born 24 June 1947, Wimbledon, London) is an English musician, who was a member of the progressive rock band Electric Light Orchestra from 1972 to 1974.
Biography
In 1971, in partnership with percussionist Frank Ricotti, A ...
and on
Tony Coe
Anthony George Coe (born 29 November 1934) is an English jazz musician who plays clarinet, bass clarinet, flute as well as soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones.
Career
Born in Canterbury, Kent, England, Coe started out on clarinet and was self- ...
's 1978 album, ''Coe-Existence''.
Tomkins was the first cousin of
Roy Budd
Roy Frederick Budd (14 March 1947 – 7 August 1993) was a British jazz pianist and composer known for his film scores, including ''Get Carter'' and ''The Wild Geese''.
Early life
Born in South Norwood, South London, Budd became interested in mu ...
(jazz pianist and film composer of ''
Get Carter
''Get Carter'' is a 1971 British crime film
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detecti ...
'' fame), and Peter C. Budd (jazz guitarist living in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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), and was a member of various trios and other line-ups with his cousin Roy.
In 1982 he played on the album ''Before a Word Is Said'' with Alan Gowen,
Phil Miller
Philip Paul Miller (22 January 1949 – 18 October 2017) was an English progressive rock/jazz guitarist and a central part of the Canterbury scene.
He was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire. Self-taught on guitar, Miller formed his first band, Del ...
and
Richard Sinclair
Richard Stephen Sinclair (born 6 June 1948) is an English progressive rock bassist, guitarist, and vocalist who has been a member of several bands of the Canterbury scene.
Biography
Born in Canterbury, England, both his father (Dick Sinclair) ...
. The album was released on CD in 1995.
Tomkins died on 9 September 2022, at the age of 81.
References
External links
Calyx biography*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomkins, Trevor
1941 births
2022 deaths
Canterbury scene
English jazz drummers
British male drummers
Nucleus (band) members
Gilgamesh (band) members
British male jazz musicians
New Jazz Orchestra members
Musicians from London