The Tom Amend Piano Trio (ft. Dru Heller and Matt Smiley)

Through a mix of virtuosity, musical sensitivity and cohesion thata comes from playing thousands of hours together, the Tom Amend Trio (Matt Smiley on bass and Dru Heller on drums) creates music of great depth and impact. While this band might fall into the "straight ahead jazz" category, their sound reaches far beyond that of a conventional trio, with thoughtful arrangements and elevated musical moments that are defy any category.

Tom Amend is an organist, pianist, composer, and arranger from Denver, Colorado. Performing and recording throughout the Rocky Mountain region in various settings as both a leader and a sideman he can be heard with with Colorado based Soul/Blues artists: The Burroughs and the Taylor Scott Band. Amend received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies and a Masters of Music in Composition at the University of Northern Colorado. During his time at UNC Tom shared stages with Chris Potter, Christian McBride, Jeff Hamilton, Joey DeFrancesco, Groove For Thought, Greg Gisbert, Deborah Brown, Louis Hayes, Dave Liebman, Sheila Jordan and others. As a bandleader, Tom's 2021 debut album as an organist, 'Frontier Justice' featured Jeff Hamilton on drums and Steve Kovalcheck on guitar.