Tommy Whiteside: Musician
Tommy Whiteside is a drummer, composer, songwriter, and sound engineer based in Roseburg, Oregon. After graduating from Cornish College of the Arts with a bachelor’s degree in music composition in 2012, he kicked around Seattle, playing in multiple projects both as a side-man and bandleader until moving home to Southern Oregon in 2017. Now he is a founding member of Roseburg rock ‘n’ roll power-trio Widespread Haze, the drummer of the Umpqua Community College Big Horn Jazz Band, and full-time production manager at The Rosebud Theatre. His endeavor into instrumental music acts as his diary, combining his love of jazz and improvisation with his calling for community engagement and opportunity.
Tommy Whiteside Combo
Original Instrumental Jazz
Formed in 2024, drummer / composer Tommy Whiteside’s instrumental jazz combo puts original hand-written music in front of a rotation of some of the best young jazz musicians in the region, and beyond. The combo explores the outer reaches of harmony, blending influence from bebop to chamber music to free-jazz into a dynamic, eclectic, and sometimes abrasive sonic tapestry of improvisation.
“The Majician” will be the third original instrumental album by Tommy Whiteside since 2024. Recorded in Roseburg, Oregon in Summer of 2025, the album highlights the well-oiled rhythm section and allows space for the players to express their voices. Heavy swing, neurotic freedom, and captivating beauty mark the dynamic corners of “The Majician”, whose influences range from chamber music to the avant-garde, with a heavy dose of hard bop.
Featuring Nathaniel Keller on Alto Saxophone (currently studying music at Berklee School of Music), Jackie Sandberg on piano (Spokane), and Judah Sensabaugh on Bass (currently studying music at University of North Texas).
The music of “Xanadu” is cinematic and expressive, wandering from strange and colorful orchestrated harmonies, through free-improvisational landscapes, and into gritty bop-infused blues, always prioritizing melody and swing. Rhythmic interplay, unusual form, and melodic storytelling are cornerstones of this new material.
Featuring Nathaniel Keller (alto sax), Matthew Krepky (tenor sax), Miles Halloran (trumpet), Andrew Schnautz (trombone), Jackie Sandberg (keyboards), Judah Sensabaugh (bass, composition), and Tommy Whiteside (drums, composition).
Nana’s Piano, released January 2025, features Nathaniel Keller (alto, soprano sax), Matthew Krepky (tenor sax), Trevor Thompson (trombone), Josh DiStefano (piano), Judah Sensabaugh (bass), and Tommy Whiteside (drums, composition). The album of six original instrumental jazz compositions was entirely composed, recorded, mixed, and produced in downtown Roseburg at Way Back Recording, a studio housed in the historic Oddfellows building.