Joe Thomas (saxophonist, 1909)

Joe Thomas and Eddie Wilcox (in the background), circa October 1947.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

Joseph Vankert "Joe" Thomas (* 19th June 1909 in Uniontown (Pennsylvania) ; † 3. August 1986 in Kansas City (Missouri) ) was an American jazz - and rhythm-and-blues - tenor saxophonist , singer and bandleader.

Thomas became known as the alto saxophonist in the orchestra of Horace Henderson (1929/1930), then switched to tenor during his membership in Stuff Smith's band in 1930/31. From 1932 he worked with Jimmie Lunceford and was a member of the band until Lunceford's death in 1947, in which he often played solos and occasionally sang. Joe Thomas and Eddie Wilcox then led the Lunceford band as a ghost band for a year .

In the late 1940s and early 1950s he led a rhythm and blues sextet in which u. a. Emmett Berry and George Duvivier played; but then he left the music business to work in the family business in the mid-1950s. In the 1960s he began performing again occasionally, such as in 1970 at the New York Jazz Festival and 1968 at the Newport Jazz Festival , where he played under Count Basie Lunceford arrangements. From the late 1970s and early 1980s, recordings were made under his own name, including a. with Jimmy Rowles (1979) and Jay McShann (1982).

The tenor saxophonist should not be confused with the swing trumpeter Joe Thomas of the same name , who u. a. played in the Fletcher-Henderson Orchestra.

Discographic notes

• Giants of Small-Band Swing Vol. 2 (OJC, 1946)
• Jumpin´ with Joe (Swingtime, 1949-52)
• Speak You Piece (Sue, 1964)
• Raw Meat ( Uptown , 1982)
• Blowin 'in from KC (Uptown, 1984)

literature

• Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-141-02327-9 .
• Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
• Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler, Christian Pfarr: Reclam's Jazz Guide . 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-15-010355-X .

Web links

Commons : Joe Thomas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Joe Thomas at Allmusic (English)