Drummer, composer and educator, Tomohiro Mori was born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1992. He started playing the drums at age 3 and piano at age 5. Being raised by musical parents, Tomo was exposed to music at a very early age. His mother and father, who played piano and guitar respectively, formed a family band and played Beatles covers, in which Tomo was an active part of.
Originally, Tomo wanted to form a band with friends around his age. Although he initially did not have a strong interest in jazz, his pianist friend called Tomo to form a jazz band. Finally, he started playing jazz and formed a jazz band with his friends when he was thirteen years old. He has performed in gigs and music festivals around his hometown with this group.
When Tomo was seventeen, he was awarded a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music. He has studied with Ralph Peterson Jr., Terri Lyne Carrington, Kenny Washington, Rodney Green, Darren Barrett, Dave Santoro and Hal Crook.
Tomo has been a NYC based professional musician since September, 2015. In December, 2015, he released his debut album “Grand Slam”. Also, he had an album release concert tour throughout Japan, with band members consisting of NYC musicians Takeshi Ohbayashi on piano, Tamir Shmerling on bass and Braxton Cook on alto saxophone. Tomo released his second album, “Uptown Bound” in December 2017 and he had an album release concert tour throughout Japan in January 2018. Tomo has performed at famous venues in NYC as well as US tour.