I did not grow up in a musical family. I grew up in a sports/baseball family. But music was always around me. My sister Susan took piano lessons so we had a piano. I remember her playing “Bridge Over Troubled Water” which has such a great piano introduction. My two older brothers had large record collections and since my father grew up in the era of the big bands – Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman were usuals on the living room record player.

I started out on trumpet at Hillside School with Mr. Horax the janitor repeatedly needing to pull out my stuck mouthpiece with pliers. Then, in sixth grade, I started taking piano lessons from a local piano teacher. I continued the lessons until ninth grade when I started playing in a band called “Spectrum.” I knew enough basics to get by. I loved playing in that band with classmates Jimmy Cece, Frank Pedalino, Paul Ogden, Tommy Lombarski and the later addition of Mike McKernan (’78). I still feel a connection to those guys to this day. It’s like being on a sports team and coming together to accomplish something greater than you could do on your own. Since both my brothers had great record collections, I never really needed to buy anything. Eventually, and not surprisingly, the first album I bought was “Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player.” Elton John was very much responsible for my interest in playing piano. In addition, classmate Timmy’s Davis’ mom was an awesome stride pianist. She would play and make the piano come alive with rhythm and joy.

In our senior year I was planning to go to college for accounting. My neighbor and classmate Susan Kagan told me she started taking lessons from a teacher who was teaching her pop songs. I started studying with that same teacher and within a few lessons, I realized that I wanted to go to school for music but I was way way behind being ready to get into college to study classical piano. So I took a year off and practiced hours and hours a day to get ready to audition and was accepted at William Paterson College. I really loved it there and got everything out of it that I could. I never had aspirations to become a classical pianist but figured that would be the best road to acquire the best technique to use in any way needed. I started playing in a wedding band and also in a local bar band. This was a bit of a challenge playing a late-night bar gig and then next morning trying to stay awake in an Italian Renaissance art class. I have always liked writing songs. One of the first songs I wrote was when classmate Joe DeSantis passed away. Such a sad occasion. It’s called “He Still Lives”. I continued writing songs all through college.

After I graduated, I connected with Charlie Elgart, class of ‘76. I didn’t know him while in high school but knew of him. He was the best jazz pianist at LHS and he had some studio recording equipment and a synthesizer which was a big deal at the time. We complimented each other with me being the songwriter and he being the producer and recording engineer. We worked together pretty much every day for a couple of years. I learned so much from Charlie. Through Charlie, I got my first recorded song on a major label by a smooth jazz saxophonist, Najee.

I was always writing, singing and recording songs on my own. Timmy Davis was working at People Express Airline and he played my tape for a coworker who knew some people in the music business and he started to make some connections for me. That connection introduced me to Lisa Fischer to do some co-writing with her. Lisa is a great singer and went on to sing background with The Rolling Stones for 30 years. He also connected me with Emuir Deodato who had a hit in the 70’s with an instrumental version of “Also Sprach Zarathustra” and he produced “Celebration” by Kool And The Gang. Emuir was working on a producer album for Atlantic Records with a few different artists and I ended up being one of them. The album went no where and that was the beginning and end of my solo artist career. Though I had recorded a lot of songs as the singer, the more I worked with others in the music business the more I saw how amazing the real singers were so I just concentrated on songwriting and production.

Through Lisa Fischer I met Jeff Smith and Peter Lord who had a group called The Family Stand and they were soon to do a tour to support their latest album, and I was asked to play in the band. The first was a west coast tour opening for Ziggy Marley. That was followed by opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their “Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic” tour in Europe. This was all in the early ’90’s. I had a songwriting publishing deal with Sony Music for five years in the mid-nineties though never really had any major success.

I always stayed in touch with Timmy Davis and would go visit him and his wife near Pittsburgh a couple times a year. A nice escape from the pressure of the music business. Since I was friends with Lisa Fischer and The Rolling Stones were playing in Pittsburgh in 1994, she got us tickets to see the show. Timmy and I had always shared a love of music and I couldn’t think of anyone I would rather take to this show. Tragically, a couple weeks before the concert, Timmy was on a business flight from Chicago back to Pittsburgh on USAir flight 427 which crashed killing everyone on board. I think 30 years later I am still in shock about it. There was a book written about the crash and the investigation into the cause: “The Mystery Of Flight 427 Inside A Crash Investigation” by Bill Adair.

I continued to tour with The Family Stand and was always songwriting. In 2001, I started writing instrumental music for ESPN and usually have a project with them every year. I’ve heard some of my music while watching New York Rangers games which is always a thrill since I’m a huge Rangers fan.

In 2011, I was asked by Sandra St. Victor, a singer from The Family Stand, to be musical director for a show to honor Bill Withers. It was held at the opera house in Amsterdam and it was a surreal experience. As I was playing, directly in front of me in the first row sat Bill Withers. All I could think was how am I up here playing his songs for him? At the end of the show, I felt a tap on my shoulder and it was Bill Withers thanking me. Truly, a moment I’ll never forget.

I’ve played a few live shows with Cyndi Lauper accompanying her on piano. Together, we wrote a song called “I’ll Be Your River” on her “Body Acoustic” album and then I collaborated with her on a song in the Broadway show “Kinky Boots” called “Hold Me In Your Heart”. Kinky Boots was orchestrated and arranged by the incredibly talented and successful Stephen Oremus, also a Livingston graduate, though much younger than us. About the same time Lisa Fischer asked me to accompany her for a documentary called “20 Feet From Stardom”, a film about background singers. Though you don’t really see me, it is me playing piano with her in all her scenes in the studio. It is an excellent movie and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

I’ve been working for Casio as demo piano player and go to the annual NAAM trade show in Anaheim every January. While at the show, I’ve run into classmates Mitch Zeleszy and William Kanegisier. Both played in the group “Euphoria” and competed against “Spectrum” in the Battle of the Bands.

For the last bunch of years my focus has been mainly playing solo piano gigs at local restaurants and playing in a couple rock bands. The Peach Project, an Allman Brothers tribute band and ironically another band called Spectrum. I also play at weddings and am very grateful to get to perform often with my daughter, Leah, who is an excellent singer.

I have a few private students and practice as much as possible. Music is a bit of a blessing and a curse because there’s always something new to learn and also, always something new to learn. And so, my never-ending musical journey continues.

For more information about my current activities, follow me on tomhammer.com and Tom Hammer Youtube Channel.