"A sophisticated and hip debut... from a fresh voice full of potential" - Mark F. Turner, AllAboutJazz.com

"Tom Wetmore’s leader debut is quintessentially chill. It’s surely a contemporary take on jazz, but don’t call it smooth--at least not when alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw is blowing torrid double-time solos… or when the leader is shuffling counterpoint lines like a casino card dealer.... A two-guitar frontline of Brad Williams and Justin Sabaj, alongside either Shaw or Eric Neveloff on sax, helps create Wetmore’s shimmering signature sound of interlocking motifs.... This is a unique and strangely affecting first effort." - Bill Milkowski, JazzTimes

"Tom Wetmore's new The Desired Effect (Crosstown) is both tantalizingly familiar and utterly strange. Which is a good effect indeed.... Though there are sparkling solos throughout the album, it's the overall sound of the pieces, the ensemble feel, that sticks with you. Most impressive is the three-way counterpoint that Wetmore explores — often with the lead saxophone playing the melody while both guitars weave contrapuntal lines underneath.... So you're always getting a bright pop sheen on the surface with a complex pattern of inner voices below." John Garelick, The Boston Phoenix

"A debut brimming with bold statements, labyrinthine constructs and strong rhythmic undercurrents, marking Wetmore as one to watch out for in the future." - Dan Bilawsky, AllAboutJazz.com

"A brilliant offering from a fresh new voice that will have heads turning in no time.... A flawless work." - CriticalJazz.com

"Delightful.... Fills the gap between winding down and chilling out." - Midwest Record

Tom Wetmore is a “sophisticated and hip” (AllAboutJazz.com) NYC-based pianist, composer, and bandleader. Since 2005, Tom has been a regular on the New York scene, bringing his “shimmering signature sound of interlocking motifs” (JazzTimes) to clubs and other venues from Harlem to Brooklyn (and everything in between)—leading a variety of top-flight groups, including his traditional jazz piano trio and “rousing sextet” (AllAboutJazz.com), the Tom Wetmore Ensemble. His debut album The Desired Effect (2012), released on Crosstown Records, has been called "a brilliant offering from a fresh new voice that will have heads turning in no time.... A flawless work" (CriticalJazz.com).

Inspired as much by Bach as Miles Davis, Tom has long embraced the pursuit of that rare breed of musical expression that defies musical boundaries. Though well-grounded in classic jazz—having completed studies with such traditional masters as Mulgrew Miller and Harold Mabern—Tom has delved even deeper into the more experimental elements in improvised music, completing extensive work with such modern innovators as James Weidman and Ran Blake.

His work with Blake—the Avant Garde legend who practically invented the notion of combining classical music with jazz (in the 1950s)—challenged Tom to evolve past stylistic boundaries and, through exhaustive ear training, to eliminate any disconnect between his musical ideas and his ability to express them on the piano. This has allowed him to develop “a fresh voice full of potential” (AllAboutJazz.com) centered on “shuffling counterpoint lines like a casino card dealer” (JazzTimes).

Equally comfortable composing as performing, Tom has made his writing an integral part of his creative process. Having studied jazz composition with Cecil Bridgewater and Jim McNeely and modern classical composition with Jeffrey Kresky, Tom has developed a style that combines the advanced harmony and rhythm of jazz and classical with the visceral groove of funk and other popular music. This eclectic synthesis results in compositions “brimming with bold statements, labyrinthine constructs and strong rhythmic undercurrents, marking Wetmore as one to watch out for in the future" (AllAboutJazz.com). He has been a finalist for the ASCAP Young Composers award.

Tom has performed or recorded in diverse formats with such leading musicians as Jaleel Shaw, Pete Robbins, Michael League, Ole Mathisen, Tony Moreno, Leo Traversa, Garrett Brown, TK Blue, Clark Terry, Slide Hampton, Brad Williams, Justin Sabaj, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Antonio Hart, and many more. He holds a B.A. from Cornell University, an M.M. in Jazz Studies from William Paterson University, and multiple master’s degrees from Columbia University. He has also studied at Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory.