You are invited to join ATYPICAL ARTS as we celebrate the upcoming Mardi Gras season with our first concert of 2025!

New Orleans' traditional jazz piano great, Tom McDermott, makes his his long-awaited return to Jacksonville after a 6 year absence. Few pianists or composers are able to embrace the breadth and depth of New Orleans and it's long tradition of jazz piano greats such as Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller and Professor Longhair. However, Tom McDermott certainly has an elevated place alongside the greats of traditional New Orleans Jazz pianists!

Considered one of the finest traditional Jazz pianists, Tom has over 17 albums to his credit. He has performed througout the world with the Dukes of Dixieland and was a founding member of the New Orleans Nightcrawlers. Based in New Orleans, Tom has been regularly featured at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He has also thrilled audiences around the world and his performances have been praised by the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times to name just a few.

Joining Tom will be clarinetist Molly Sweet of the popular local New Orleans style traditional jazz band, The Junco Royals. Molly is also a founding board member and performing musician with the Civic Orchestra of Jacksonville and plays in several chamber music ensembles.

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The relaxed feel of Mr. McDermott’s playing sometimes conceals the boldness of his harmonic decisions and the rigor of his approach, which leans on diligent musicology. His playing and his original compositions draw from a deep repertoire dating back to Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s mid-19th-century works. -- Larry Blumenfeld, Wall Street Journal