Ken Thomson

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Ken Thomson (born July 12, 1976 in New York City ) is an American fusion musician ( saxophone , clarinet , composition ), who is also active as an interpreter of new music .

Act

Thomson studied history and music theory at Columbia University . First he played in the large-format ensemble Ex Caminos ; In 1999 he founded the post-punk / fusion band Gutbucket with several fellow students , with whom he released six albums and one DVD for the labels Knitting Factory , Enja , NRW, Cantaloupe and Cuneiform Records . In 2010 he presented a first album with his group Slow / Fast , which received good reviews; The album Settle followed in 2014 with the same line-up . With a sextet under his name, another album followed in 2018, which, with the exception of a composition by György Ligeti, only contains original compositions that clearly exceed the jazz horizon . He has performed in the USA and Europe at major jazz festivals such as Jazz à Vienne , San Sebastian Jazz Festival, Warsaw Summer Jazz Days and the jazz festivals in Saalfelden , London, Copenhagen, Rotterdam and Belgrade.

Thomson has worked as an instrumentalist in Ensemble Signal (under the direction of Brad Lubman) with composers from Helmut Lachenmann to Steve Reich and interpreted their works on CDs for Harmonia Mundi , Mode, Orange Mountain and Cantaloupe Records. Since 2013 he has been playing the clarinet with the Bang on a Can All-Stars . Thomson has also worked as the musical director of new music productions, for example in 2009 as the director of the Traveling Music by composer Julia Wolfe at the Bordeaux Conservatory. He has also conducted Brian Enos Music for Airports with the Bang on a Can All-Stars , choir and guest musicians from Melbourne to Buenos Aires. He is also the musical director of the Asphalt Orchestra - a 12-member marching band committed to the avant-garde.

As a composer, he has received chamber music and symphonic commissions from the American Composers Orchestra , Bang on a Can, the True / False Film Festival , Doug Perkins, Mariel Roberts and others; awards from New Music USA, ASCAP and Meet the Composer followed. He calls his concept 21st Century Third Stream , which “actually often sounds like a classical chamber ensemble, but also records sounds and melodies that only fit into our century. Thomson, known for being able to switch from one genre to another in fractions of a second, bringing the energy level from 0 to 100 in no time at all, knows how to weave stop-and-go passages into his pieces in the most amazing way, is a guarantee for music full of tension, intensity and exquisite quality. "

Discographic notes

  • Ken Thomson and Slow / Fast It Would Be Easier if ( Intuition 2010, with Russ Johnson , Nir Felder , Adam Armstrong, Fred Kennedy and Melanie T. Sehman)
  • Ken Thomson / JACK Quartet Thaw (Cantaloupe 2013, with Ari Streisfeld, Christopher Otto, John Pickford Richards, Kevin McFarland)
  • Restless (Cantaloupe 2016, with Ashley Bathgate (cello), Karl Larson (piano))
  • Sextet (Panoramic Recordings 2018, with Anna Webber , Russ Johnson, Alan Ferber , Adam Armstrong, Daniel Dor )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry (AllAboutJazz)
  2. ↑ Gutbucket at Allmusic (English)
  3. ↑ Meeting (AllAboutJazz)
  4. ↑ meeting (jazzcity.de)
  5. ↑ Program announcement (Tonne, Dresden)
personal data
SURNAME Thomson, Ken
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American fusion musician (saxophones, clarinets, composition)
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City