Ross Tompkins

Who was Ross Tompkins?

Ross Tompkins was an American jazz pianist.

Tompkins attended the New England Conservatory of Music, then moved to New York City, where he worked with Kai Winding, Eric Dolphy, Wes Montgomery, Bob Brookmeyer/Clark Terry, Benny Goodman, Bobby Hackett, and Al Cohn and Zoot Sims. He moved to Los Angeles in 1971, playing with Louie Bellson, Joe Venuti, and Red Norvo in the 1970s and Jack Sheldon in the 1980s. He was perhaps best known for his longtime association with Doc Severinsen's The Tonight Show Band, in which he played from the 1970s until 1992. He recorded prolifically for Concord Jazz as a leader in the second half of the 1970s.

Tompkins died of lung cancer in 2006.