Tom Schuman was born on January
31, 1958, in Buffalo, NY. His father, Wally, was a jazz
bassist and his mother, Marion, was a jazz singer when they
met. Greatly influenced by this family of musicians, Tom
began playing piano by ear at age six. His parents were
reluctant to give him lessons because of their own struggles
with the music business. When they heard him playing jazz
chords, improvising and writing tunes at age seven, they
felt compelled to provide him with all of the musical
support a child could possibly have. 
He started
studying classical piano in 1965. For five years he
practiced every day after school but soon grew an aversion
to classical piano because of its lack of freedom. He always
preferred to "jam" on the classical chord structures instead
of playing what was written. One of his teachers, Sandi
Holland, was impressed with his natural talent and arranged
for him to play and be interviewed on a local radio program.
He played Chopin's Prelude in E-minor (as written). Then he
played a jazz standard with his dad on bass and friend,
Charlie Fadale, on drums. He picked "How Insensitive"
because of its melodic similarities to the Chopin Prelude.
He was eleven at the time. This experience gave him enough
motivation to continue his musical education. Tom began
studying jazz theory, writing and arranging techniques as
well as improvisational skills from a number of jazz
pianists who were friends of the family. He also gained a
lot of experience jamming with his dad at home as well as
sitting in with many musician friends around town. 
Tom's
first "real" gig (other than church organist) was for his
high school. He was asked to play the 1973 senior prom at a
nearby banquet hall. Check this out! The hall had a
dilapidated piano and when Tom pulled at the front of the
piano the front legs buckled and the six-foot long, five
hundred pound grand piano came crashing down on top of him!
Luckily for Tom, he was not seriously hurt. But he had to
finish out the gig with the piano resting on top of two
garbage cans. To this day, he considers that to be the worst
gig he ever played. Well, to make a long story 
longer, he
quickly began playing with a lot of local pop and jazz bands
after joining the musicians' union. It was a great
experience playing in night clubs at the age of sixteen. But
more interesting and astonishing were the union gigs he
ending up playing at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center and
prisons like Attica, Albion and the Monroe County jail in
Rochester. He played these gigs with a band called "The
Existing Reality" and later a contemporary jazz band,
"Birthright". Birthright gave Tom his first opportunity to
compose and perform on a jazz record. While still only
sixteen years old, he traveled to Europe to help promote and
distribute Birthright's "Breath of Life" record. He did
radio interviews and sat in with a lot of European
musicians. All of this contributed to a realistic
perspective of the profession early in his life. Returning
to Buffalo, Tom performed in concerts featuring a variety of
jazz artists including Mark Murphy, Sammy Noto, and Grant
Green. He also became a frequent presence in local jazz
clubs sitting in with other musicians. He particularly
enjoyed 
sitting in with this new band in town led by
Jay Beckenstein and Jeremy Wall. The music was fresh and
vibrant. It seemed as though all the rhythms of the world
were being shared and he had his first chance to play those
weird synthesizers everyone was talking about. Apparently,
Jay and Jeremy both liked his playing enough to invite him
to perform on their recording project. They called it Spyro
Gyra! Well, the rest is history. Tom has performed on all of
Spyro Gyra's albums to date and has written or CO-written
over thirty-five compositions since "Catching the Sun." He
released his first solo record, "Extremities," in 1990 and
has plans to continue his solo career along with his work
with Spyro Gyra. His dream is to someday be able to balance
his solo career with guest appearances on albums of other
artists as well as Spyro Gyra and find the time to score a
movie or two. Who knows, with music as a vehicle, there will
be no limits to Tom's creative influences on the sounds of
the future. Tom now has a new solo project, Into Your Heart.
Here is what he has to say about his latest effort: "This
new release is a reflection of my life for the past decade.
I put 100% of my mind, body, heart and spirit into this
project. From the writing, to the performances, to the
production, to the mixes, to the packaging...Every aspect of
this CD represents a large piece of my soul. I am offering
this body of work as a loving tribute to my wife, Yvonne
(hence the Valentine's Day release). She single-handedly
turned my hell into heaven and my nightmares into dreams."
