Tobin Mueller - What Survives (Radio Edits) (2020)

Tobin Mueller is a composer, playwright and interpretive pianist living in Connecticut. His musical compositions range from Impressionist Jazz t to Progressive Rock, Broadway musicals to Old-School Funk. In the late 1970s and early 80s, he was one of several composer-pianists who developed what would become known as New Age music, although Tobin's version identifies more closely with Modal/Post-Bop Jazz.

His 2020 jazz album, What Survives, brings fresh new arrangements together with remastered older tunes. The CD What Survives-Radio Edits distills this 26-track opus into 15 radio play tracks. The album presents a high energy 9-piece contemporary big band ensemble. The players then mix and match into different breakout combos, providing great variety in both texture and stylings to track after track. "One of the freshest and most sheerly entertaining, intriguing and exciting recordings I've come across" (Brad Walseth, Chicago Jazz). Mueller's long time collaborator Woody Mankowski provides vocals on four moving ballads.

His 2018 album, Standard Deviations, is an homage to the great jazz composers of the Twentieth Century. It reached #16 on the FM Jazz Radio charts and #18 on Independent Radio (college radio, all genres). Building on this success, Mueller released an original 28-track prog rock/fusion tour de force, WONDER, at the end of 2019, to much acclaim. "A masterpiece in the Epic Prog tradition” (Eric Harabadian, Progressive Magazine). Mueller has appeared on over 30 albums.

Tobin comes from a musical family. His grandfather was a violinist for silent films. His mother was a Jazz vocalist. He began accompanying her on piano when he was 14. In the 1990s Tobin moved from Wisconsin to New York City (the West Village) where his Off Broadway career took shape. Later, he would volunteer at Ground Zero, following the attack on 9/11/2001, and subsequently suffered lung damage. He no longer sings. "This makes me cherish the piano all the more," he states. (See the 2016 article Chopin and I: Music That Transcends.)

A lifelong environmentalist, Mueller was inducted into the United Nations’ 1994 Global 500 Roll of Honor in London for his work with UNEP and the world youth environment movement.

A prolific songwriter and arranger, he's released at least one album every year since 2005, many of them double albums. Please see a complete list of his available recordings. To get a taste of his stage musical output, see the newly released compilation TOBIN MUELLER: Best of the CenterStage Years.

Tobin's works include jazz and progressive rock enembles of all configurations, solo piano compositions, musical theatre, film scores, ballets, symphonies, video game soundtracks and children's music. He has written lyrics, stage plays, fiction, political essays, poetry, philosophy, domestic humor, video game storylines, software and keyboard reviews. He's sold his photographs to the hotel industry and his digital illustrations as part of his web design work. But he has always thought of himself a composer, first and foremost.