It’s not a secret, exactly. But you’d probably never guess, hearing Tom Grant today — at his peak on the new CD, Delicioso — that a career so full of popular and artistic success almost didn’t get off the ground.

Today, he’s a master pianist, accomplished singer and songwriter who makes sophisticated use of the Smooth Jazz he helped to pioneer. He’s been on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and had four Number One albums on Adult Contemporary and Smooth Jazz charts. A polished entertainer, Tom has touched listeners worldwide because his subtle, skillful music is always cheerful and accessible yet deeply resonant. In his voice and touch on piano, we hear the perfect marriage: the improvisational jazz fusion that first propelled him to the top joined with the warm, melodic grooves that have kept him there.

First, though, he had to get out of a small lumber town in Oregon. He was raised in Portland by a tap dancing father who taught him drums and piano and let him listen to jazz in his record store in the city’s black entertainment district. Yet Tom didn’t realize music would be his life, and took a high school teaching job right out of college.

Good thing musicians remembered the shy, soft-spoken piano player! In 1970, Native American saxophonist Jim Pepper swept Tom off to New York — where they turned a peyote chant into the pop hit, Witchi-Tai-To. Soon, Tom was touring and recording with some of the top names in jazz, including Miles Davis’s fiery young drummer, Tony Williams, who was shaping the new sound of jazz-rock fusion. Those brilliant, demanding bandleaders forced Tom to step up. When he got back to Portland 10 years later, Tom took what he’d learned, filtered it through pop music of the day, and, in 1983, began presenting a new sound of his own. A series of his albums — including Mango Tango, In My Wildest Dream and The View from Here — topped Smooth Jazz charts for nearly 20 years. Along the way, he started his own label and toured Japan and Indonesia behind recent releases that include Life Is Good and Solo Piano. His compositions were used in TV shows and films. And he continues to
play frequent charity events and appear on compilation CDs for many worthy causes.

Most important, he continues to delight listeners with his happy, believing sound. So climb on in! And ride some deep American grooves — top down, sunny melodies in your hair, and plenty of harmonic depth under the hood.

Tom Grant is a Yamaha artist.