Jim Tomlinson

The release of his debut album as leader, Only Trust Your Heart (Candid 2000), received widespread acclaim. His follow-up CD, Brazilian Sketches (2003), was named Jazz CD Of The Week by the Observer newspaper in the UK.

Tomlinson was born in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, England. He grew up in Northumberland, then attended Oxford University where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Meanwhile, he was playing clarinet and saxophones, mostly the tenor, and developing his interest in jazz. In his postgraduate year he studied at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama and began to establish himself on the local jazz scene. His reputation quickly spread and he was soon working with noted musicians, including Matt Wates, Humphrey Lyttelton and Michael Garrick, recording with the latter on his 1997 session For Love Of Duke And Ronnie.

In the 90s Tomlinson was frequently leader of his own quartet, touring extensively in the UK. He is also well known for his work as the counter-voice to singer and wife Stacey Kent, whom he married on 9 August 1991 and whose albums he has produced since 1997. In 2006, he began composing with Nobel Prize winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, who writes fanciful, mildly surreal lyrics to Tomlinson's music. Tomlinson and Ishiguro have co-written several songs for Kent's albums from 2007 on.

Tomlinson married American singer Stacey Kent on 9 August 1991. They are both accomplished skiers. Only touring commitments in March 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 prevented them from racing in the NASTAR US Championships, for which they both qualified in consecutive seasons. Tomlinson and his wife, who are based in England, have built up large followings in France and Germany.

Tomlinson did not study music formally until well into his 20s. He played saxophone and ran a band as a hobby whilst studying for his degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at University College, Oxford. It was only after graduating and finding himself drawn to London's jazz scene that he enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1990.

Jim Tomlinson is a British tenor saxophonist, clarinetist, flautist, producer, arranger and composer, born 9 September 1966, in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, England. He is married to singer Stacey Kent.