Carei Thomas

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Carey Frank "Carei" Thomas (born July 23, 1938 in Pittsburgh ; † May 28, 2020 in Minneapolis ) was an American jazz musician ( piano , composition , also singing ) who had a career as a jazz pianist , composer, Has been an educator and organizer of art exhibitions in Minneapolis.

Live and act

Thomas spent his teenage and early adult years in Chicago where he met one of his idols, band leader and pianist Sun Ra . There he founded a doo-wop group and worked with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians . After serving two years overseas in the U.S. Army, Thomas moved to Minneapolis in 1972 to study music education and therapy at the University of Minnesota . In the years that followed, he was involved in many organizations in the Twin Cities , serving as music director for the Interact Center for Visual and Performing Arts and as a music educator at the West Bank School of Music and St. Paul's High School for Recording Arts. In 1993 he fell ill with Guillain-Barré syndrome ; he then invented new ways to play the piano. The nerve disorder required years of physical therapy and limited his finger movements.

Thomas was known for developing experimental and cross-genre pieces of music under his own name and with groups and collectives such as Zeitgeist, The Elders and the Neighborhood Ensemble . He was also a pioneer of musical concepts such as controlled improvisation and sound generation. In 2000 Thomas recorded the album Minding Our Bid'ness with his Feel Free Ensemble at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater in Minneapolis . a. the saxophonist George Cartwright took part. He then played original compositions such as "Tippy / One Ahead (For All Victims of Violence)" and "Invention # 1: Way North of the Order (Dedicated to Paul Bley and Ornette Coleman )". In 2003 he worked on an album for the group Fat Kid Wednesdays ; around 2005 his last album was created under his own name, Sound Window (s) , which was released by Innove Records. In 2011 he published "Compositions and Concepts" with notes and stories behind his pieces from 1959. Thomas died in late May 2020 when complications of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy developed after a fall , leading to heart failure .

The jazz singer José James , who performed with Thomas' many Twin Cities ensembles and was a student of Thomas, called him "a brilliant pianist, composer and mentor to a generation of artists".

Discographic notes

  • Minding Our Bid'ness (2000), with Steve Sandberg, William R. Lang, George Cartwright (ts, as, sop), Brian Roessler, Brock Thorson, Adam Linz (b) Eric Coursen, Alden Ikeda, Tim DuRoche (d)
  • Fat Kid Wednesdays: The Art of Cherry (2003)
  • Sound Window (s) (Innova, 2005), with Jacqueline Ferrier-Ultan, Patrick O'Keefe, Gary Schulte, Steve Goldstein
  • Zeitgeist: Here and Now (2011)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carey Carei Frank Thomas (obituary). In: Star Tribune. May 31, 2020, accessed June 4, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Chris Riemenschneider: Minneapolis jazz pianist and composer Carei Thomas dies at 81st Star Tribune, June 4, 2020, accessed on June 4, 2020 (English).
  3. ↑ Listing of the album Sound Windows V: Pinnacles on Allmusic (English). Retrieved April 1, 2020.
  4. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed June 3, 2020)
personal data
SURNAME Thomas, Carei
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomas, Carey Frank (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician (piano, composition)
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Pittsburgh
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 2020
Place of death Minneapolis