His reputation quickly spread, and he was soon working with noted musicians, including Matt Wates, Humphrey Lyttelton, and Michael Garrick,.

In 2006, he began composing with Nobel Prize winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, who writes fanciful, mildly surreal lyrics to Tomlinson's music.

He played saxophone and ran a band as a hobby whilst studying for his degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at University College, Oxford.

Since then, Tomlinson has worked in a wide variety of groups, from Bryan Ferry to the experimental big band of composer Michael Garrick.

Most recently, he has toured almost exclusively with Stacey Kent in Europe, USA, Brazil and the Far East, reserving time to perform in a quintet dedicated to the music of Lester Young with fellow saxophonist and Guildhall graduate Mark Crooks.

In the liner notes to one of his CDs, Tomlinson wrote: "As a fourteen year old saxophonist living in the far north of England, keen to expose himself to the world of jazz, I had a little option when shopping for records but to operate on the rule of thumb, 'if there is a saxophone on the cover, buy it.'