Vibraphonist Tom Collier and electric bassist Dan Dean have been making music together for 40 years. Tom's musical career began at a very early age. By age 9, he was already dazzling audiences with his marimba wizardry appearing on the Lawrence Welk Show as one of its youngest guest artists. Dan started out with the clarinet in his grade school band before meeting up with Collier and trading the clarinet for an electric bass. By the mid-1960's the two musicians were beginning to work in the Seattle recording studios doing commercials and pop music 45's. After college, the two eventually ended up in Los Angeles working in the studio scene and playing jazz gigs with such artists like Howard Roberts, Bobby Shew, Shelly Manne, Laurindo Almeida, Bill Mays, Emil Richards, Abe Laboriel, just to name a few. Collier & Dean released their first album "Whistling Midgets" on New York's Inner City Records in 1980 and have continued to record off and on ever since - alone, as a duo and with others. Their 2005 "Duets" album on Origin Records was nominated for best Northwest Jazz Recording by Earshot magazine. Aside from their recording careers, Collier has been Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Washington since 1980 while Dean has led a successful career with his own company, Dan Dean Productions, producing music for film, television, radio and CD's on a national level.