Thomas Burch McMorran

Ventura County Jazz Musician Thomas Burch McMorran passed away on February 11, 2026 in Camarillo, after several years of health struggles. Thomas (Tom) was born on April 16, 1959 in Boston, MA and was the eldest son of William Trett and Kay Dale McMorran. The family moved to California in 1965, and to Ventura County in 1977.

Tom showed musical ability from a very young age, and loved all musical genres. He played a variety of instruments from the guitar and harmonica to the didgeridoo and kalimba, but his love was jazz and the piano and keyboards. He graduated from Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta in 1977,where he played keyboards in a jazz band for the first time. He attended Pierce College in the late 1970s where he studied jazz keyboards with Carlyle (Doc) Hume and then at the Dick Grove School of Music in 1984. In 1986 he began playing professionally in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties with Jeanne Tatum and Barbara Wood,among others.

Tom’s extensive touring career began in the late 1980s when he began playing with Flora Purim and Airto Moreira. He is featured on two studio albums with Purim and Moriera,The Sun is Out from 1987 and The Midnight Sun in 1988. In 1988 Tom joined Leonard Cohen on the I’m Your Man European Tour and US and Canada Tour. They played in such dream venues as Carnegie Hall in New York and Royal Albert Hall in London, and on Austin City Limits. In 1988 Tom toured with Robben Ford in Europe and appeared with him on The Tonight Show, fulfilling one of Tom’s childhood dreams. He joined The Rippingtons for an East Asian tour in 1994. Tom played with Tom Scott and the LA Express in the 1990s. He played, toured and recorded with so many talented performers, including Natalie Cole, Joe Pass, Michael McDonald, Toni Childs, Bonnie Raitt, Lenny Bread, Rickie Lee Jones, and many others.

Tom was happiest when jamming with his many musician friends and performers he admired. He always praised and promoted his fellow musicians. For the past 15 years Tom’s musical home was at The Grape in Ventura, where he felt supported by a loving community. Besides music, Tom loved the ocean, art, science, history and talking to everyone he met.

Tom is survived by his siblings, sister Elizabeth Schetina and brother-in-law Gregory Schetina and brother Andrew McMorran and sister-in-law Anna Lisa des Prez, his nephews and niece and several McMorran and Dale cousins.

Funeral arrangements are private.