Gloucester Alumni

President of the GHS Class of 1957

Tom, as he was known by his classmates, was born in Gloucester in 1939. He studied piano with Florence Reynolds and Don Oaks, and saxophone and clarinet with Antonio “Tony” Gentile and Andy Jacobson while playing in the GHS ROTC marching band. While at GHS he also played saxophone in the “Modernaires,” a local dance band in which his brother Peter (GHS 1955) played piano. Tom subsequently formed his own big band, made up of GHS musicians, and he led smaller groups that played at local dances and weddings. After graduation, Tom attended Syracuse University, where he studied classical piano; but his love of jazz led him back to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied music theory and composition with Gloucester-born trumpeter Herb Pomeroy. After Berklee Tom attended the US Navy School of Music, in Washington, D.C., later serving in military bands in the US and Hawaii. Following his discharge from the armed services, Tom joined the Les and Larry Elgart band. Then he played briefly with the Dorsey band before joining the Woody Herman “Thundering Herd” Orchestra, with whom he played baritone saxophone. For twelve years he traveled with Herman to Eastern and Western Europe, Africa and Great Britain, along with appearances in jazz festivals in Newport, RI, Montreux and Monterrey. During these years Tom lived in New York City, San Francisco and Las Vegas. While in Las Vegas he wrote for and played with Diana Ross and the Supremes and served briefly as music director for Elvis Presley, with whom he spent a concert season on the road. Tom appeared on many long playing albums with the Herman Band, while also composing and arranging music for Herman and several other band leaders and artists. He was recognized in Downbeat Magazine polls as one of the leading baritone saxophonists, although he had also mastered soprano sax, flute and bass clarinet. In 1976 Tom returned to Boston to teach at Berklee College and pursue his lifelong dream of leading his own big band while concentrating on music composition. For a year he appeared in Boston clubs and at several jazz concerts with his own and other bands before succumbing to a fatal heart attack in April of 1977, at the age of 37.