Harry Thomas

This article is about the Canadian musician. For the British athlete, see Henry Thomas (boxer) .

Harry Thomas (actually Reginald Thomas Broughton , born March 24, 1890 in Bristol ; † July 11, 1941 in Montréal ) was a Canadian pianist and composer of British origin who emerged in ragtime and early jazz .

Live and act

Thomas, who was self-taught on his instrument , came to Montréal in 1909 and played as a pianist in silent film cinemas around 1920, initially in Regent . Together with Willie Eckstein , from whom he learned, he wrote the compositions Perpetual Rag and Delirious Rag , the latter took Thomas in 1916 for Victor Talking Machine Company in the first ragtime 78s the label. Around 1920 Thomas moved to Halifax , where he worked as a pianist in movie theaters until the end of the decade. He spent his later years in Montréal, where he was a musician in cabarets and was forgotten in the mid-1930s. Thomas was completely impoverished at the end of his life; he died in 1941 of an infection as a result of his alcoholism .

Thomas has 18 piano rolls made between 1916 and 1919 in the United States for the publishers QRS, Metro-Art, Rhythmodik and Duo-Art; Furthermore, he played both as a soloist for Victor and in trio (with Alex Lajoie, saxophone, and Howard Wyness, vibraphone) for HMV and Starr-Gennett 29 pieces on record. Due to his ability to improvise , Jack Litchfield rated him as one of the earliest jazz musicians in Canada.

Discographic notes

• Jazz and Hot Dance in Canada, Volume 14

literature

• John Gilmore: Swinging in Paradise: The Story of Jazz in Montreal . Montreal: Véhicule Press 1988
• John Gilmore: Who's Who of Jazz in Montreal: Ragtime to 1970 . Montreal 1989

Web links

• Biography (The Canadian Encyclopedia)
• Portrait at Ragtime Piano
• Delirious Rag at Smithsonian Folkways

Individual evidence

1. ^ Delirious Rag at the Library of Congress
2. ^ J. Litchfield The Canadian Jazz Discography 1916-1980 . University of Toronto Press, 1983