Tom Varner Quartet is the debut album by American jazz French horn player and composer Tom Varner

Tom Varner

Tom Varner is an American jazz horn player and composer.Varner studied piano in his youth with Capitola Dickerson of Summit, New Jersey. He holds a B.M...

 recorded in 1980 and released on the Italian Soul Note

Black Saint/Soul Note

Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian jazz independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz.-History:...

 label.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Ron Wynn awarded the album 4½ stars and stated "Tom Varner turned heads and opened eyes on the jazz scene in the early '80s. There weren't, and still aren't, many French horn players who improvise and play with the facility he demonstrated on this 1980 session".

Track listing

All compositions written and arranged by Tom Varner

1. "The Otter" - 7:43
2. "Radiator" - 8:26
3. "12 12" - 7:39
4. "TV TV" - 10:05
5. "Heaps" - 10:28
   • Recorded at Sorcerer Sound in New York City on August 29, 1980

Personnel

• Tom Varner
  Tom Varner
  Tom Varner is an American jazz horn player and composer.Varner studied piano in his youth with Capitola Dickerson of Summit, New Jersey. He holds a B.M...
  
   - French horn
• Ed Jackson - alto saxophone
  Alto saxophone
  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
  
  
• Fred Hopkins
  Fred Hopkins
  Fred Hopkins was a Chicago double bassist who played a major role in the development of the avant-garde jazz movement. He was a member of the avant garde jazz trio Air and David Murray's Low Class Conspiracy; he frequently worked with the cellist Diedre Murray...
  
   - bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  
• Billy Hart
  Billy Hart
  William "Billy" Hart is a jazz drummer and educator who has performed with some of the most important jazz musicians in history.-Biography:Early on Hart performed in Washington, D.C...
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....