Tom Varner

Tom Varner (b. Morristown, New Jersey, United States, June 17, 1957) is an American jazz horn player and composer.

Varner holds a B.M. degree (1979) from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Ran Blake, George Russell, and Jaki Byard. He also holds an M.A. (2005) from the City College of New York, where he studied with Jim McNeely, Scott Reeves, and John Patitucci.

He has performed and recorded with Steve Lacy, Dave Liebman, George Gruntz, John Zorn, Bobby Watson, La Monte Young, Miles Davis with Quincy Jones, Bobby Previte, Jim McNeely, McCoy Tyner, and appears on over 70 albums. He also has 11 albums out as a composer/leader. Varner has been in the Down Beat Critics Poll Top Ten annually since the mid-1990s. He has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Doris Duke Foundation, and has been a resident at the MacDowell and Blue Mountain Arts Colonies.