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Tommy Z |
| Hometown: |
Buffalo, NY |
| Genres: |
Blues, Pop/Rock |
| Biography: |
| Beginning as a teenager in the talent-rich Western New York music scene, Tommy Z is a guitarist/singer/songwriter/producer/engineer/composer and Couldb artist who has been described as a "blues treasure" by legendary WBFO DJ Jim Santella (WBFO), and "one of WNY's best kept secrets" by Sarah French, Blues Matters Magazine. While an electric blues-based stylist onstage, in the studio Tommy composes a variety of styles. So while well experienced and studied in traditional styles Tommy is an artist who puts that soulful blues feeling into all the different music he plays. As a result he's been been recognized with numerous awards over the years, including being voted Top Blues Vocalist in Western New York 2003/2004/2006, Top Blues Guitarist 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2004, 2005, 2006 and his groups have won the Top Blues/Crossover Blues Band categories 1994, 2005, 2006, was honored with the Muddy Waters Award for "Artist of the Year" by the Blues Society of WNY in 2004. In 2007 Tommy was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame. He has had the opportunity to perform with/or co-bill with some of the worlds' greatest artists in the blues/rock genre including: B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jeff Healey, Colin James, Roomful of Blues, Blues Traveler, Derek Trucks, Joe Bonamassa, Peter Frampton and many more including a tour backing up Grammy-winning blues legend Pinetop Perkins (Muddy Waters Band). The son of a Vietnam-era veteran, he has been bringing a taste of home to US troops overseas since 2003 with blues-based concert tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Japan, South Korea, Djibouti, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Egypt, Turkey, Guam, Alaska and other distant locales on behalf of USO/AFE. Rolling Stone Magazine called some of these locations, "The most dangerous gigs on Earth." Tommy contributed guitar tracks to Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan's CD on Immergent called Gillan's Inn, on the track "When A Blind Man Cries," which featured blues-rock legend Jeff Healey. He also appears on rocker Michael Lee Jackson's 2006 Immergent release, "In a Heartbeat." In 2006 a critically acclaimed CD entitled Universal Love was produced with Nick Blagona (BeeGees, Chicago, Police), and it was described as "soul-rockin' blues" by Bob Putignano, NYC Blues Society President and Sounds of Blue DJ (WFDU), "awesome" by Bob Silvestri, Best of WNY, and "should feature high on your list of 'new' acts to investigate" Mick Rainsford, Blues in Britain Magazine. On April 15, 2010 Tommy performed at the Washington Monument for Freedomworks' Take Back America 2010 to a crowd of an est. 40,000 people. In addition to his performance schedule, Tommy is a Canisius College graduate, guitar teacher, and composer/producer for Film, TV, Sports, etc. His most recent credits include writing the victory song for the St. Louis Blues (NHL), Red Hot Chili Peppers Biography, Ryan and Sean's Not So Excellent Adventure, Last Comic Standing (NBC), TLC's Stager Invasion and others. Tommy just had a song featured in the Tea Party Movie Documentary, which is soon to be released on the follow-up CD to Universal Love. |
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