Tom Coster

Tom Coster 2009

Tom Coster (born August 21, 1941 in Detroit ) is an American keyboardist who has emerged mainly in fusion and smooth jazz .

Live and act

Coster, who grew up first in Michigan and then in California , learned the accordion as a child before switching to the piano after ten years of lessons, which he also studied at the College of San Mateo . During his five years in the military, he played in an Air Force band. In 1969 he moved to San Francisco and was a member of the jazz rock group Loading Zone . In 1971 he moved to Gábor Szabó . From 1972 to 1978 he was a member of Carlos Santana's band . There he worked on several albums such as Caravanserai or Welcome , was also known as a composer and "played out his quality as an improviser with a keen sense for a wide variety of musical styles, especially in live concerts". At the 1978 Montreux Jazz Festival he performed with Billy Cobham . After three years outside the music scene, he led his own bands. His son of the same name plays on his album Ivory Expeditions . He has released albums under his own name on Fantasy Records , Headfirst and JVC, some of which made it into the top 10 of the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Charts . Between 1983 and 1986 he worked again with Carlos Santana, then he played for Vital Information . He also worked with Third Eye Blind , Coryell / Coster / Smith , Claudio Baglioni , Boz Scaggs , Joe Satriani and Frank Gambale .

Coster's most famous compositions include “Europa (Earth's Cry Heaven's Smile)”, “Flor D'Luna (Moonflower)” and “Dance, Sister, Dance (Baila Mi Hermana)” for Santana and “The Perfect Date” for Vital Information .

Lexical entries

• Wolf Kampmann (Ed.), With the assistance of Ekkehard Jost : Reclams Jazzlexikon . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010528-5 .

Web links

• Entry at AllAboutJazz
• Interview with Doug Payne
• Tom Coster at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Coster at Concord ( Memento of the original from November 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Reclams Jazzlexikon, p. 120.