Tony Bunn

Tony Bunn
Tony Bunn
	Tony Bunn during 2009 live performance
Background information
Birth name	Robert Anthony Bunn
Born	November 18, 1957 (age 67); Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, funk, blues, rock
Occupation	Musician
Instrument(s)	Bass guitar, double bass
Years active	1976–present

Robert Anthony Bunn (born November 18, 1957) is an American bassist, composer, producer, and writer.

Biography

Tony Bunn was born into a musical family and began studying music in grade school. By the age of seventeen he was proficient on woodwind and brass instruments; earning scholarships to Peabody Institute Preparatory Summer Program(s), as well as inclusion in local orchestras for gifted students. He began the study of the bass guitar in high school.

By the age of twenty-two he had toured Europe and played and recorded with several renowned groups, including Sun Ra, Harold Ivory Williams, Michal Urbaniak, Urszula Dudziak, Jean Carne, Chuck Brown, and the legendary Chuck Berry. In 1977, he conceived and developed the first modern 5-string bass guitar with luthier Paul Reed Smith (Most other sources attribute the first modern 5-string bass to an instrument built in 1976 by Alembic Inc for bassist Jimmy Johnson). Graduating from university in his late twenties, Bunn earned bachelor's degrees in mathematics and computer science. Working with computers and scientific programming, he went on to receive an award from NASA for flight dynamics work on the Terra satellite system. Later, aged in his fifties, Bunn returned to music full-time and began producing projects as a bandleader and solo artist. In 2009, he released the Small World recording (also featuring Dennis Chambers, Arshak Sirunyan, etc.), receiving international acclaim.