Tom Beimel
Music & Audio Production - Bassist - Tutor
Tom has been playing the bass professionally since the early 90's. He is renowned for being a solid, reliable, grooving bassist, versatile in many genres, styles and situations.
He performed on stage with many Swedish artists, such as Carola, Jojje Wadenius, Janne Shaffer, Sanna Nielsen, Jan Tolf, Alcazar, Petra Marklund, Jennifer Brown, Anders Widmark, Claes Jansson, Mats Ronander, Kent Kroon, Cotton Club, Afrodite, Frida Örhn...and many more.
Currently he is playing bass with soul singer/composer Andreas Aleman.
After an artistic graduation from The Royal College Of Music in Stockholm in the late 90´s, he was invited to join the legendary jazz/fusion guitar player Jan Tolf's Funk@teers band.
During that time Tom also became a steady member of the 10 piece afrobeat band Oyindu, where he played Nigeria driven, Fela Kuti style basslines with strong funky flavours. Oyindu released one album, "Unification", and performed on numerous festivals and club scenes around Sweden, before the band eventually split up and went separate ways.
Tom continued exploring world music and soon took the bassist role in Sweden's, at that time only professional Rai orchestra, Hada Raina, playing Algerian rhythms mixed with reggae, funk and high-life.
Some of the members of that band were, renowned guitar player "ZilverZurf" from famous Dag Vag and also, horn player Klas Jervfors Turner with whom Tom recorded the album "Odonata"in 2022 and briefly became a member of Klas' band "KJT & The Dreamers".
"Odonata" received very nice reviews from several major swedish jazz critics.
Various constellations and extensive freelance bass playing in many different genres during the years paved the way for Tom's career on the music scene. Every know and then Tom produced musical projects of his own - mainly funk collaborations, trying to reveal the essence of the fundaments of funk music and more particularly aiming to reproduce live, the core of the sound of that genre that emerged in the 70's and 80's.
The projects went by the name "The Roots Of Funk" and they soon developed into a number of various highly appreciated concert series on jazzclubs and festivals, during the span of a decade, presenting different constellations, all containing many of Sweden's absolute finest musicians.
The project presented musical journeys of funk music, through the 70's and 80's era. The aim was to project a time travelling experience with an eye for every detail along the way.
Another highly acclaimed project of Tom's was "The Herbie Hancock Headhunters Experience" concert series, intended as a complete homage to one of the funkiest jazz groups ever assembled by Herbie Hancock in the 70's.
- "It's almost an obsession of mine to try to reproduce the vibe, not only of the songs themselves - but of the actual sound and the energy from the original recordings...and make it all come alive, again, and to recreate all of that, on stage.
I guess it's like I'm trying to create a reminiscence for the audience, for the band and for myself...a sort of time travel"
In 2008 Tom was invited to soul/funk singer, composer Andreas Alemans Band during the release of his first album "This Is Life".
Since then he has been a steady member of his prominent 9 piece band together with some of the absolute finest musicians in Sweden.
Tom also played bass on many of Andreas' following albums:
"It's The Journey" (2012) and "Home For Christmas" (2014). the latter where legendary session vocalist Michael McDonald (Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan etc) featured in the duet "Celebrate The Season".
Tom also co-wrote the song "Somehow I Found Home" (2016), released as a single.
Some more cuts with Tom playing bass with Andreas Aleman:
- "Through the years I have been part of several great productions and shows in Sweden - but when I got called in to sub on the bass-chair in late 2016, for the nr 1 disco group in Sweden, "Alcazar" and their show "Disco Defenders" at club Hamburger Börs in Stockholm - I was really exited. It was an honour to be part of this supertight amazing band and an extravaganza show beyond what I have ever encountered" -
Tom was a member of the Swedish ABBA tribute band "The Visitors" (previously named "Waterloo") for over 20 years, and with them toured world wide, including most European countries, India, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan.
"One of my most memorable gigs must have been when we were part of a sold out show in London's famous Royal Albert Hall in 2007."
Though the main part of the touring was in the USA, starting back in 2002 with the american 21st Century Artists Inc. - production called "The Concert - A Tribute To ABBA".
He has performed in over 25 states at regularly sold out venues such as "The Wolf Trap" (D.C.), "The Filmore" (Miami Beach), "The Melody Tent" (Cape Cod).
- "I will never forget when I performed in front of 15.000 people at the Hollywood Bowl arena in Los Angeles!" -
Live footage from a Las Vegas show on the US summer tour in 2019
Tom has also appeared on swedish state television (SVT) several times during the years. The videos beneath shows one of his first major experiences sharing the stage with one of Sweden's maybe most famous artists, Carola, in the popular TV show "Bingolotto" in 2001.
The next video is from the same TV show, but 18 years later in 2019 with the entertainment orchestra Cotton Club featuring the singer Kayo!