rumba

Photo by Rico

Big Easy pianist/composer off-kilter and on target

You never know where pianist Tom McDermott will go haring off to next. That’s because he often hasn’t a clue, either. A daring and inventive improviser, he’s more than willing to go striding (or ragging or rumba-ing or tango-ing) through doors that lead who-knows-where. In the middle of a Scott Joplin piece, he might find an opening that leads straight to James Booker and start mixing the rag’s more straitlaced syncopation with the saucy funk of New Orleans R & B.

• tom mcdermott
• new orleans
• piano
• jazz
• tango
• r&b
• funk
• improvisation
• outpost
• music