Pianist’s Key Connections : Ross Tompkins has built a 35-year career playing with some of the grand characters of jazz.

Look around the cozy confines of pianist Ross Tompkins’ condo near the Burbank Studios, and you see the memorabilia of a 35-year career in jazz. There are photos of the former “Tonight Show” pianist with many of his colleagues, from saxophonist Zoot Sims to trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Conte Candoli. There’s a portrait of Tompkins painted by Tony Bennett and a characteristically exaggerated line drawing of clarinetist Pete Fountain by Al Hirschfeld. But you don’t see a piano.

“I don’t keep one here,” says the good-natured Tompkins with a ready smile. “I play almost every night so I practice when I work.” He appears Sunday at JP’s Money Tree with trumpeter/vocalist Jack Sheldon.

Tompkins says the only other pianist he knew who didn’t have an instrument at home was Erroll Garner, the impish, melodic artist who will forever be known for composing “Misty.”

“He had his in the garage on its side, so he could get his Cadillac in,” says Tompkins with a laugh.

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Garner, trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Bobby Hackett and saxophonist Sims are just four of the grand characters of jazz with whom Tompkins has had a convivial association during his life in professional music.

That career took off in the summer of 1957, when the Detroit native who was raised in St. Augustine, Fla., joined Benny Goodman right after a year at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Employing a style that reflected the hearty rhythm of Fats Waller and Oscar Peterson and the melodic litheness of Teddy Wilson and Nat Cole, Tompkins landed in New York in 1958 and was quickly in demand.

He performed and recorded with trombonists J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding, held court at the then-new Playboy Club with a trio from 1962-64, then led another trio at The Embers, backing such greats as trumpeters Clark Terry and Roy Eldridge and saxophonists Illinois Jacquet and Sims.

Often Armstrong, the first giant of jazz improvisation, came by and sat in.

“We got to be friendly, and he’d tell me all the famous stories, about leaving New Orleans for Chicago, then coming to New York,” says Tompkins, now 57, whose firm skin and bright hazel eyes give him the look of a younger man. “He also told me how to make red beans and rice, telling me to soak the beans overnight to take the ‘whistle’ out of them.”

Tenor sax ace Sims and Tompkins also hit it off.

The saxophonist invited the pianist to join him in a band at the Half Note, near Greenwich Village, where he played with Al Cohn, and the renowned ex-Count Basie singer, Jimmy Rushing, was spotlighted.

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“It didn’t get any better than that,” Tompkins says of working with the tenor players. “They were, sound wise, like honey and molasses. Al was the molasses, having a darker, thicker sound than Zoot. And there was Jimmy with his raspy voice, singing, ‘Don’t the moon look lonesome shining through the trees,’ ” he adds with a chuckle.

During this period, Tompkins joined Doc Severinsen’s “Tonight Show” orchestra, and when the show moved to Burbank in 1972, he was one of a handful of musicians that Severinsen brought west. It was a swell job, Tompkins says.

“There was not one day that I didn’t have a great time,” says Tompkins, who has recorded extensively and whose latest album is “AKA ‘The Phantom’ ” on Progressive Records. “Doc didn’t care if you’d just gotten out of prison, if you could play the parts. And whenever an album of mine was released, Johnny [Carson] would feature me on the show.”

Since leaving “The Tonight Show,” along with Carson and Severinsen in 1992, Tompkins has spent about half of each year on the road, working festivals and jazz parties.

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Then back at home, he’s gainfully employed, appearing most Sundays at JP’s Money Tree with his longtime partner Jack Sheldon and most Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the Grille in the Sheraton Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.

With Sheldon, with whom he’s played since 1985, Tompkins offers an array of selections, from “The Song is You” and “By the River St. Marie” to “Blues in the Night” and Charlie Parker’s “Steeplechase.”

Pat Britt, the alto saxophonist who has heard Tompkins dozens of times and has played with him on a few occasions, says the pianist is a sublime musical partner.

“He does everything right and that builds confidence, makes you feel comfortable,” says Britt, who leads a quintet on Sundays at the Cat and Fiddle Pub in Hollywood.

Tompkins says his life in music has given him a pleasant lifestyle, but more important, it’s given him inner well-being.

“I’ve been playing the piano since I was 3 and I still can’t wait to get to work at night,” he says.

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WHERE AND WHEN

What: Ross Tompkins with Jack Sheldon.

Location: JP’s Money Tree, 10149 Riverside Drive, Toluca Lake.

Hours: 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday.

Price: No cover, no minimum.

Call: (818) 769-8800.