Ar hyn of bryd mae'r cynnwys hwn ar gael yn Saesneg yn unig.
Ar hyn of bryd mae'r cynnwys hwn ar gael yn Saesneg yn unig.
Ar hyn of bryd mae'r cynnwys hwn ar gael yn Saesneg yn unig.
hyrwyddo a dathlu cerddoriaeth Cymru
promoting and celebrating the music of Wales
+44 (0)29 2063 5640
Ivor Novello Award nominee Tomos Williams is a trumpet player and composer whose highly personal and distinctive music bridges the worlds of jazz and folk. Much in demand both as a soloist and as member of various bands including 7Steps, Khamira and Burum, he also presents a jazz show on BBC Radio Cymru and is Chair of 'Jazz Explorers Cymru' - a grass roots organisation set up to promote jazz within and outside of Wales.
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Ahead of his two upcoming Wales-wide tours this month, we asked Tomos to tell us about some of the highlights of his exciting and varied career:
​▶ Performing with Fernhill and Burum
​▶ Working with Llio Rhydderch
Aberystwyth
I was born and grew up in Aberystwyth — a lively town offering plenty of opportunities to hear and play music. We were fortunate to have the exceptional Ceredigion Music Service as well as regular concerts from the town's Philomusica Orchestra plus visits from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Hallé. There was also Aber Jazz, the local trad band, and Meic Stevens was often heard in Y Cwps.
Music could always be heard in our home too. Both my parents sang in choirs and my father had a pretty comprehensive classical vinyl collection. My Dad-cu was an accomplished composer of hymns and was the organist at the 1968 National Eisteddfod's Cymanfa Ganu in Barry.
Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade was one of my early favourites, as was Shakin' Stevens. Then, in my early teens, I discovered the trumpet playing of Lee Morgan. This introduced me to 'hard-bop' — the jazz associated with the record label Blue Note. Horace Silver, Fats Navarro, Joe Henderson, Kenny Dorham and many others all entered my life at this point.
Tomos performing with Burum and Jean-Michel Vellon at the 'Festival Interceltique de Lorient' in 2013
Performing with Fernhill and Burum
I've never considered myself a 'composer' as such but, having led bands for most of my adult life, it's just something that's developed, particularly in the past ten years. I performed with the traditional music band Fernhill during the 00s and this was a really important part of my musical development. It not only taught me a wealth of Welsh melodies, but also introduced me to Breton folk tunes and other musical traditions that I hadn't previously experienced. I’m grateful to Ceri Rhys Matthews and Julie Murphy for this education which runs deep.
Tomos playing with Fernhill in Lommel, Belgium, 2009
​I started arranging Welsh folk tunes for my jazz/folk sextet Burum and in 2014 had the chance to travel with them to India, thanks to support from Wales Arts International. This prompted a cross-cultural collaboration between three members of Burum and three Indian musicians.
From this Khamira was born, fusing Wesh folk, improvisation and Hindustani classical music under the umbrella of jazz. This gave me the opportunity to meet and perform with incredible musicians and to incorporate non-western instruments such as the sarangi and tabla into my musical pallette.
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Cwmwl Tystion II / Riot! at Llais Festival, October 2023
Cwmwl Tystion
Having had the experience of arranging for both Burum and Khamira, in 2018, I started a new project called 'Cwmwl Tystion', for which I would write a new 'suite' of music.
With this project I decided to hand-pick musicians and write original music that dealt with Welsh identity and history. I wanted the music to include elements of improvisation, the avant-garde, minimalism, groove and Welsh folk melodies. It's very important to me that my music maintains an element of 'Welshness' (whatever that means!), so I incorporated Welsh folk melodies, hymns and the Welsh language as elements in my suites. I used a Welsh 'carthen' as a graphic score for one of the movements and each performance was accompanied by Live visuals generated by Simon Proffitt.
The Cwmwl Tystion project was largely triggered by my discovery of Wadada Leo Smith's music and his Ten Freedom Summers album in particular, a profound work that deals with the African-American experience throughout history. I found Wadada's ability to combine through-composed and completely improvised passages with deep grooves deeply inspiring. I was also inspired by the music of Matana Roberts and her 'Coin Coin' project, Ambrose Akimusire's music, John Zorn and the band Harriet Tubman.
Bass lines have always attracted my ear and I do tend to always start from the bass and work my way up. I'm not sure that this is the best method, but if I stumble on a good bass line, I'm happy to progress! Composing to include large chunks of improvisation, or grooves over a bass line seems completely natural to me, as is blurring the boundaries and combining differing 'genres'. It's all music, and if you approach the music with honesty and integrity, I think you can include anything – avoiding pastiche is key!
With the Cwmwl Tystion projects, I've composed three different suites, all of around 70 minutes in length and scored for different instrumentations.
Cwmwl Tystion / Witness (2018) was written for a chamber ensemble of piano, violin, harp, bass, trumpet and drums but with players like Rhodri Davies and Huw Warren you're sure to get a lot of really creative improvisation.
Cwmwl Tystion II / Riot! (2021) featured Orphy Robinson on vibes, Soweto Kinch on sax and spoken word and Eadyth Crawford on vocals. This was more of a 'groove band' with the great Welsh rhythm section of Aidan Thorne and Mark O'Connor on bass and drums. I knew what each player would bring, so I certainly had that in mind as I composed this suite which also includes Welsh folk tunes and sections of improvisation.
Cwmwl Tystion III / Empathy (2024) toured Wales last year, and featured the American bassist Melvin Gibbs and French/Vietnames electric guitarist Nguyên Lê alongside two powerful Welsh female vocalists, Eadyth Crawford and Mared Williams. I envisioned this band as an 'augmented power trio', and composed the music with this very much in mind.
With the three Cwmwl Tystion suites I see myself as much as a navigator as a composer. I create the moods of each movement, or map out the general direction of travel, and then have complete faith in the musicians to bring the music to life or to impose their own character on the music. In that sense, I'm not a 'specific' composer at all — I provide the skeleton, but the details happen differently night after night. I control of the direction of the music and signal cues so it's a real mix of being a performer, leader and composer!
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Politically provocative and musically engaging, Riot! may be rooted in Welsh soil, but its overarching theme of human rights, and human rights abuses, speaks to the world at large.
All About Jazz review of Cwmwl Tystion II / Riot!, January 2024
In 2024 Tomos took part in Tlws y Cyfansoddwr alongside Lowri Mair Jones and Nathan James Dearden
Tlws y Cyfansoddwr
I entered the 'Tlws y Cyfansoddwr' competition at the Eisteddfod Genedlaethol in Pontypridd last year and wrote some through-composed music for piano, violin, clarinet and cello based on images from Rhondda Cynon Taf. This was a huge departure for me and a massive learning curve! I'd never written anything in such a 'classical' context before, but it was a great experience and I learnt a lot from my fellow competitors Nathan James Dearden and Lowri Mair Jones during the process.
Working with Llio Rhydderch
During the early 2010s I collaborated with the legendary Welsh triple-harpist Llio Rhydderch and together we released the album Carn Ingli. Llio is a real musical treasure and composes 'on the spot', very much in the tradition of improvisation — she let's her 'fingers wander the strings'. Working with her has had a profound influence on me, and recording an album of trumpet, triple harp and drums was an early indication of my happiness to combine differing insruments and sounds.
Burum also toured with the eminient Breton flautist Jean-Michel Veillon at various points throughout the 2010s, and working with Jean-Michel was equally inspiring. He could put his personality and stamp on any musical situation while also ensuring the integrity of 'the whole'.
Mark O'Connor, Tomos Williams and Llio Rhydderch at the recording of 'Carn Ingli' in 2010
Building for the future
Coming out of Covid and with the jazz community in Wales was in dissarray a number of musicians came together to create 'Jazz Explorers Cymru'. I'm Chair of this body which aims to promote and encourage jazz happenings and education in Wales. We have now grown to include jazz venues and promoters in Wales, as well as educators and in April 2025, in partnership with RWCMD, and National Youth Arts Wales we held the first Welsh Youth Jazz residential course for quite a few years. We hope that this will continue and become a regular event on the educational calendar for Wales' youth.
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Looking ahead, I've been commissioned by Aberystwyth MusicFest to compose new music for a jazz ensemble based on Waldo Williams' Cerddi'r Plant (poetry for children) and during the next few weeks I'll be busy touring Blodeugerdd and with Khamira — I hope to see you at one of our gigs!
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Young musicians playing at National Youth Arts Wales' recent jazz project in Cardiff
UPCOMING GIGS
I'm currently working on music for my newest project/band which will be touring in early October. Blodeugerdd / The Great Welsh Songbook will perform new arrangements of Welsh folk tunes again mixing Welsh folk, jazz and free improvisation, and we'll be playing in Aberystwyth, Mold, Holyhead and Cardiff.
The band features Huw Warren, Paula Gardiner, Eadyth Crawford, Mark O'Connor and Rachel Musson and I'm really excited to hear the kind of improvisational freedom that they will bring to my arrangements. TÅ· Cerdd funded me to compose for this project, as did Canolfan Ucheldre, Hollyhead.
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02.10.25 Aberystwyth Arts Centre 7.30pm
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03.10.25 Caffi Isa, Mynydd Isa 7pm
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04.10.25 Ucheldre Centre, Holyhead 7.30pm
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10.10.25 Dora Stoutzker Hall, RWCMD, Cardiff 7.30pm
Tomos Williams (trumpet)
Eadyth Crawford (voice)
Rachel Musson (tenor saxophone)
Huw Warren (piano)
Paula Gardiner (bass)
Mark O'Connor (drums)
Khamira are also over in Wales in October – we perform at Llais Festival in the WMC, Cardiff, then we embark on a short tour of Wales, performing at Swansea, Narberth and Rhayader.
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12.10.25 Llais Festival, WMC, Cardiff 7.30pm
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15.10.25 Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea 7.30pm
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16.10.25 The Plas, Narberth 8pm
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17.10.25 The Lost Arc, Rhayader 7.30pm
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Tomos Williams (trumpet)
Aditya Balani (guitar)
Jonathan Mayer (sitar)
Aidan Thorne (bass)
Mark O"Connor (drums)
Vishal Nagar (tabla)
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Llais Festival performance only:
Eadyth Crawford (voice)
Amruta Garud (voice)
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