Strong reviews for Painting Time:
Joe Montague of Riveting Riffs calls it a "phenomenal disc.... a musical experience you will not want to miss."
Jazzchicago.net calls Painting Time "a colorful melange of world musical forms and sounds ...a vibrant tapestry.... [W]ith instruments like doumbek, gonkogi bell, riq and shakers involved, the urban groove is transported to the desert bazaar."
Read the whole review by Brad Walseth.
Jazz stirred up with rhythms from Asia, Africa and the Middle East
Six jazz musicians join Tom Teasley to create a colorful collage of voices from East, West, North and South. What seems like a conventional jazz lineup of trombone, trumpet, sax, string bass and drums reinvents convention to paint a whole new soundscape.
Distant musical cousins come together on vivid, textured layers of global percussion. Tom expands the typical palette of sounds to include new combinations of doumbek, riq, cajón, djembé, gamelan, tabla, electronics, and more. The jazz men contribute rare and exotic instruments of their own: the Australian didgeridoo adds bone-deep vibrations under songs from the conch shell horns (yes, like the largest ones you find the beach), and the double-bell euphonium – a brass baritone horn with two megaphone-shaped ends.
Enjoy these all-original compositions, inspired by trance rhythms, dance rhythms, and sacred and secular traditions from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas.
"It's a United Nations of sound, with Teasley at the helm, steering this sonic ark through some uncharted waters... overdubbing layers of percussion instruments, from cajón, riq and surdo to doumbek, tabla, gamelan and caxixi." -- from liner notes by jazz writer Bill Milkowski
CD Releases
Word-Beat: The Soul Dances
Middle Eastern songs, African Proverbs, and poetry of Washington D.C.'s Eloise Greenfield are set to music inspired by the words and their place of origin. Vocalist Charles Williams and percussionist Tom Teasley form the acclaimed duo Word-Beat: www.word-beat.com.
Global Groovilization
"A jazz-world-funk release... this CD has engaging melodies, rich interplay, and plenty of variety and diversity in its sound, all held together by a unity of groove... Teasley's hand and stick speak volumes." - Spin the Globe, World Music – KAOS, Olympia, WA
Global Standard Time
Latin and Middle Eastern flavors abound on a world-music adaptation of ten jazz standards. Tunes include Thelonius Monk's "Straight, No Chaser," Duke Ellington's "Caravan," Luiz Bonfa's "Manha De Carnival," "Beautiful Love," "Alice in Wonderland," McCoy Tyner's "Passion Dance," Coltrane's "Equinox," Washington & Young's "My Foolish Heart," Sonny Rollins' "No Moe," and Monk's "Well You Needn't."
Poetry, Prose, Percussion and Song
This blend of spoken word and jazz-infused rhythm was hailed as one of the most important recordings of its kind at the 2007 International Association for Jazz Education conference. IAJE singled out Word-Beat as a leading collaboration in the integration of poetry and music, and described Word-Beat's recordings as "must-haves."
Time Travel
Percussionist Tom Teasley along with guitarist Rick Whitehead, bassist James King and vocalist Linda Teasley create an eclectic mix of mainstream jazz, solo percussion, and synthesizer.
DVDs
Global Fusion Percussion Clinic
Learn how to use basic finger and hand techniques, add variety, and build them into flourishes and patterns. Tutorials start out showing simple strokes and the sounds you're aiming for, how to build speed, and then how to combine the strokes on different instruments.
The demonstrations showcase the limitless possibilities when weaving several instruments together into churning poly-rhythms. Tom shows you how powerful and widely adaptable the simple techniques are when you apply them across different instruments from around the world.