Gregory Tardy is an associate professor of music in jazz saxophone at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville. He is known as a versatile jazz musician equally comfortable in a variety of musical and improvisational situations. Born into a musical family, he began his musical career studying classical clarinet with Russell Dagon and Jack Snavely. In his early twenties, while preparing for a symphony career, he discovered jazz saxophone and hasn’t looked back.
In 1993 Tardy began playing with legendary drummer Elvin Jones and has played in the bands of many jazz artists including Andrew Hill, Tom Harrell, Dave Douglas, and Wynton Marsalis. He has also performed and/or recorded along with many other notable saxophonists, such as Joe Lovano, Mark Turner, Chris Potter, Dewey Redman, Ravi Coltrane, and others. Tardy’s performance schedule has taken him all over the world playing at all of the major jazz festivals. He has been featured on several DownBeat Albums of the Year and on several Grammy-nominated recordings, including a Grammy-winning CD with Brian Lynch in 2006. Since 1992, he also has completed fifteen recording projects under his own name. His latest project, "Sufficient Grace," was released in the fall of 2022 on WJ3 Records.
