The Tom Garling Jazz Orchestra concerts

About The Tom Garling Jazz Orchestra

The Tom Garling Jazz Orchestra is a Chicago jazz big band led by trombonist, composer, and arranger Tom Garling. Its clearest calling card is scale: a 17-piece ensemble carrying Garling’s own compositions and arrangements through a monthly residency at Andy’s Jazz Club. The personnel connects established Chicago improvisers across trumpet, saxophone, trombone, guitar, piano, bass, drums, and voice, giving the project the breadth of an orchestra inside an intimate club setting.

A Chicago orchestra takes shape

Garling established the orchestra in 2019, drawing players from the Chicago area for a band dedicated to his expanding library of big-band work. The official roster names trumpeters Joey Tartel, Derrick Gardner, Pharez Whitted, and Russ Johnson; reed players John Wojciechowski, Lenard Simpson, Geof Bradfield, Rajiv Halim, and Scott Burns; trombonists Steve Duncan, Andrew Meyer, Kirby Fellis, and Tom Matta; plus Reggie Thomas, Mike Allemana, Clark Sommers, Neil Hemphill, and vocalist Leslie Beukelman. Early documentation includes a performance of Garling’s “Metamorphosis” at Fulton Street Jazz Record Art Collective, where the orchestra played two sets.

The catalog behind the band

The orchestra’s repertoire grows from Garling’s earlier recording and arranging work. Maynard Ferguson Presents Tom Garling arrived through Concord in 1997, with Garling alongside Trey Henry, Tony Pia, Jerry Pinter, Ron Stout, Christian Jacob, and Alex Iles. That record places original titles such as “Shrimp Tales,” “Trinology,” and “Forging Behind” beside standards, establishing the compact-combo writing that preceded his present large-ensemble focus. Garling’s arrangements also appeared on Ferguson releases One More Trip to Birdland in 1996 and Brass Attitude in 1998, a connection the orchestra’s own materials identify as a key part of his writing history.

Campin’ Out followed in 2004, pairing Garling with Mike Lee, Clay Jenkins, Gary Versace, Jeff Campbell, and Rich Thompson. Its program moves through “Dear Old Stockholm,” “Scarborough Fair,” “No More Blues,” and the title piece, giving a useful view of Garling as a player within a small-group setting. For a clearer big-band entry point, Chicago Jazz Orchestra’s Live from SPACE, recorded live in Evanston in 2017, carries Garling arrangements of “Daahoud,” “Theme From Star Trek,” and Ahmad Jamal’s “Ahmad’s Blues.” The latter began as a Chicago Jazz Festival commission and features pianist Dan Trudell.

Garling’s subsequent Chicago Jazz Orchestra work extends that arranging role. On More Amor, the Bobby Broom-centered program presents Garling alongside fellow arrangers Alex Brown and Charley Harrison; its track list includes Garling’s arrangement of Wes Montgomery’s “Four on Six.” These recordings function as a practical map of the vocabulary likely to surface with the Tom Garling Jazz Orchestra: jazz-songbook material reshaped for brass and reeds, original charts, and arrangements designed for featured soloists inside a full band.

Chicago collaborators and arranging rooms

The personnel list itself reads like a local-network snapshot, with Garling’s orchestra bringing together players who work across Chicago’s jazz, education, and repertory circuits. Garling has also written for the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, where Live from SPACE spotlights his contributions, and More Amor places him in a three-arranger team with Brown and Harrison. His sextet work provides another frame: a 2021 Fulton Street Collective program featured Victor Garcia, Wojciechowski, Joey Skoch, Dennis Carroll, and George Fludas performing Garling’s suite Parts of the Sum of One.

What the room offers

The live evidence points toward a recurring Chicago club engagement built around composed big-band material. Andy’s has scheduled the orchestra on the third Monday of every month in 2026: 12 dates from January 19 through December 21, each with 6:00 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. sets. The August 17 program runs 75 minutes per set, from 6:00 to 7:15 and 8:15 to 9:30, at 11 East Hubbard Street. This is a 17-piece group in a reservation-based jazz room, so the practical draw is close-range access to a full brass-and-reed ensemble. Beyond Chicago, UW–Parkside presented the orchestra at Bedford Concert Hall on March 19, 2026, billing its 17-player lineup and naming Russ Johnson and Clark Sommers among the musicians.

The current chapter

August 2026 finds the orchestra deep into its Andy’s residency, with the August 17 engagement carrying two CrowdMate listings: a 6:00 p.m. set and an 8:15 p.m. set. Garling’s official schedule places that date between July 20 and September 21 appearances, reinforcing the project’s month-by-month Chicago rhythm. For prospective attendees, the strongest current promise is consistency: the same orchestra format, an established local-player pool, and a book centered on Garling’s writing.

Start here

Try “Metamorphosis” for a direct document of the orchestra in performance; “Ahmad’s Blues” for Garling’s commissioned big-band arrangement and Dan Trudell’s piano feature; and “Four on Six” for his treatment of Wes Montgomery material with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra.

Sources

1. Tom Garling Jazz Orchestra — Tom Garling
2. Tom Garling Jazz Composer Arranger Clinician Big Band Charts — Tom Garling
3. Tom Garling — Northern Illinois University School of Music
4. Jazz Week 2026 — University of Wisconsin–Parkside
5. 1st Set With The Tom Garling Jazz Orchestra — Andy's Jazz Club
6. CDs — Tom Garling
7. Live from SPACE — Chicago Jazz Orchestra
8. More Amor — Chicago Jazz Orchestra