Thomas Peter Bancroft (born 29 January 1967) is a British jazz drummer and composer.
Bancroft was born in London on 29 January 1967. [1] He began drumming aged seven and started off playing with his father and twin brother, Phil. [1] The family moved to Scotland when Tom was nine and he had gigs in Edinburgh from his mid-teens. [1] While studying medicine at Cambridge University, he composed music and continued playing gigs. [1] For nine months during 1988–89, Bancroft studied composition and arranging at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. [1]
Back in Scotland in 1990, Bancroft wrote for his big band. [1] Qualifying as a doctor in 1992, he then worked as a jazz musician and composer, in addition to doing some medical work, including in Russia. [1] The big band toured the UK in 1996. [1] He has toured extensively in various bands and has written for radio and television. [1]
In 1998, along with New Zealander Suzy Melhuish, [2] Bancroft co-founded Caber Music. [1] [3] The first release was Bancroft's Pieology, a selection of concert and broadcast performances. [4]
Bancroft is co-leader of Trio AAB with Phil Bancroft and guitarist Kevin MacKenzie. [5] Their first album was Cold Fusion. [5] This was followed by Wherever I Lay My Home That's My Hat. [6] Stranger Things Happen at C was their next album and included Brian Finnegan on flutes and whistles for some tracks. [7] Critic John Fordham wrote that the trio "skids between Scottish folk music, the melancholy defiance of John Coltrane and the sprightly melodic laterality of Ornette Coleman". [7]
Around 2012, an album by Bancroft's Trio Red band was released by Interrupto Music. [8] The other musicians on First Hello to Last Goodbye were pianist Tom Cawley and bassist Per Zanussi. [8] Fordham described it as "a shot-in-the-dark venture that turned into a world-class trio in a week." [8] A second album, Lucid Dreamers, was released around 2016. [9]
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