Thomas O. "Tommy" Gwaltney (b. February 28, 1921, Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

) (d. February 11, 2003, Virginia Beach, Virginia

Virginia Beach, Virginia

Virginia Beach is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay...

)is an American jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 multi-instrumentalist and bandleader

Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....

. He has played clarinet, saxophone, and vibraphone

Vibraphone

The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....

.

Gwaltney studied under Ernie Caceres

Ernie Caceres

Ernesto "Ernie" Caceres was an American jazz musician born in Rockport, Texas.Caceres's brothers were both musicians; Emilio was a norteño violinist and Pinero was a trumpeter and pianist. Caceres himself played clarinet, guitar, alto and baritone saxophone, and first played professionally in 1928...

 and Peanuts Hucko

Peanuts Hucko

Michael Andrew "Peanuts" Hucko was an American big band musician. His primary instrument was the clarinet.-Early life and education:...

, playing clarinet in college bands and while serving in the military. Due to lung

Lung

The lung is the essential respiration organ in many air-breathing animals, including most tetrapods, a few fish and a few snails. In mammals and the more complex life forms, the two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart...

 injuries during the war

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 he played vibraphone for a time in the 1940s. In 1946-47 he studied at New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

 and played in an ensemble with Charlie Byrd

Charlie Byrd

Charlie Lee Byrd was a famous and versatile American guitarist born in Suffolk, Virginia. His earliest and strongest musical influence was Django Reinhardt, the famous gypsy guitarist. Byrd became the American guitarist who best understood and played Brazilian music, especially the Bossa Nova genre...

 and Sol Yaged

Sol Yaged

Sol Yaged is an American jazz clarinetist, strongly influenced by Benny Goodman's style.Yaged was born in Brooklyn, New York and began playing clarinet at the age of 12 after hearing Goodman's broadcasts for Nabisco in 1935...

. Between 1951 and 1955 he seldom played, concentrating on helping with a family business in Norfolk.

In 1956 he joined Bobby Hackett

Bobby Hackett

Robert Leo "Bobby" Hackett was an US jazz musician who played trumpet, cornet and guitar with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman in the late thirties and early forties.-Biography:...

, playing on his album Gotham Jazz Scene in 1957. He then worked with Wild Bill Davison

Wild Bill Davison

Wild' Bill Davison was a fiery jazz cornet player who emerged in the 1920s, but did not achieve recognition until the 1940s...

, Billy Butterfield

Billy Butterfield

Billy Butterfield was a band leader, jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and cornetist.He studied cornet with Frank Simons, but later switched to studying medicine. He did not give up on music and quit medicine after finding success as a trumpeter. Early in his career he played in the band of Austin Wylie...

 (1958–59), Buck Clayton

Buck Clayton

Buck Clayton was an American jazz trumpet player who was a leading member of Count Basie’s "Old Testament" orchestra and a leader of mainstream-oriented jam session recordings in the 1950s. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong...

 (1960), Charlie Byrd again (1962–63), and with his own ensembles. He owned his own nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

 in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 called Blues Alley from 1965 to 1969, but even after selling it performed there regularly with Steve Jordan

Steve Jordan (guitarist)

Steve Jordan was an American jazz guitarist.Jordan studied with Allan Reuss early in life while Reuss was Benny Goodman's guitarist. He worked in the Will Bradley Orchestra , Artie Shaw , and Teddy Powell before he enlisted in the Navy...

. Gwaltney organized several jazz festivals, including the Virginia Beach Jazz Festival and the Manassas Jazz Festival; he led bands at Manassas with Davison, Ed Polcer

Ed Polcer

Ed Polcer is an American jazz cornetist, active principally on the Dixieland jazz scene.Polcer attended Princeton University, where he graduated in 1958. Following this he played in New York City on a part-time basis...

, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Eddie Condon

Eddie Condon

Albert Edwin Condon , better known as Eddie Condon, was a jazz banjoist, guitarist, and bandleader. A leading figure in the so-called "Chicago school" of early Dixieland, he also played piano and sang on occasion....

, Doc Evans

Doc Evans

Paul Wesley "Doc" Evans was an American jazz cornetist.Evans was the son of a Methodist minister. He learned piano and drums as a child, and played saxophone in high school. He graduated from Carleton College with a B.A. in English, and played with the Carleton Collegians dance band there...

, Bobby Hackett, Vic Dickenson

Vic Dickenson

Vic Dickenson was an African-American jazz trombonist. Dickenson's career started out in the 1920s and led him through musical partnerships with such legends as Count Basie , Sidney Bechet and Earl Hines...

, Maxine Sullivan

Maxine Sullivan

Maxine Sullivan , born Marietta Williams, was an American blues and jazz singer.She was born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, and married jazz musician John Kirby in 1938 , and stride pianist Cliff Jackson in 1956...

, and Jimmy McPartland

Jimmy McPartland

James Dugald McPartland , better known as Jimmy McPartland, was an American cornetist and one of the originators of Chicago Jazz...

. He stopped playing vibraphone in the 1970s but continued on clarinet in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986 he recorded a tribute album for Pee Wee Russell

Pee Wee Russell

Charles Ellsworth Russell, much better known by his nickname Pee Wee Russell, was a jazz musician. Early in his career he played clarinet and saxophones, but eventually focused solely on clarinet....

 and gave a concert at the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 honoring Jimmie Noone

Jimmie Noone

Jimmie Noone was an American jazz clarinetist.- Background :...

. He worked in the Chesapeake Bay Jazz Band from 1992.

Discography

• Goin' to Kansas City (Riverside Records
  Riverside Records
  Riverside Records was a United States record label specializing in jazz. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer under his firm Bill Grauer Productions, Inc. in 1953, the label was a major presence in the jazz record industry for a decade...
  
  , 1960)
• Great Jazz (Laurel Records, 1963)