Biography of Tomos Williams

Tomos is a trumpeter from Aberystwyth now living in Cardiff, Wales, who leads his own band called 'Burum'.
Burum play modern jazz interpretations of Welsh folk tunes.

Tomos has played trumpet with pioneering Welsh folk band fernhill since the beginning of the century and has toured extensively with them.
He has recorded three CDs with fernhill - Hynt (2002), Na Prádle (2007, recorded live in Prague by Czech National Radio) and Canu Rhydd (2010)

Playing with fernhill opened his ears to the beauty and depth of some traditional melodies, and inspired him to create Burum as a vehicle to play some of these beautiful songs, but with the flexibility and dynamism of jazz improvisation added to the mix.

In 2011 he instigated and produced a duo CD with the legendary Welsh folk triple harpist Llio Rhydderch called Carn Ingli which received rave reviews.

Burum's new CD 'Caniadau' (meaning Songs) released in 2012, is available from this site, as is Burum's first CD 'Alawon: The Songs of Welsh Folk' which was released in 2007

Burum played at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC, USA, for two weeks in the summer of 2009.
The compilation CD - Blodeugerdd, An Anthology of Welsh Music and Song (released on the Smithsonian Folkways label) won the international Independent Music Award for the World Traditional category in 2009. This CD features a duo performance from Tomos and Llio Rhydderch on triple harp.

Tomos, originally studied American Studies at Nottingham University, followed by an MA in Culture and Society at Goldsmiths College, London.
This logically led to a Postgrad Diploma in Jazz from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff some years later.

An avid jazz fan, as well as a practicing musician, Tomos' favourite trumpeters at the moment are Jason Palmer, Ambrose Akinmusire, Verneri Pohjola and Cuong Vu, as well as legends such as Tomas Stanko, Enrico Rava, Kenny Dorham and Paolo Fresu.