Jazz Articles about Ron Thomas

About Ron Thomas

Album Review

These recordings come from the mid-80s, a time when mixing jazz and electronics was still a fairly radical idea. They have trumpeter John Vanore marrying his solo lines to electronic embellishments performed by pianist Ron Thomas on a Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer and other keyboards. Nothing here is startling by modern standards, but there are still some interesting sounds and experiments present. The electronic effects mix in lightly on several tracks. “Yesterdays" and “A Time for Love" are basically ...

Album Review

John Vanore: Primary Colors

Read "Primary Colors" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 13, 2020

This beautiful duet set recorded by trumpeter John Vanore and pianist Ron Thomas serves as a showcase for auspicious beginnings, for both artists. The music for Primary Colors was recorded in 1984-85. Both of the players evolved into higher profiles, finding their individual places in jazz in the twenty-first century--Vanore with, mostly, his large ensemble writing, influenced by saxophonist/orchestrator Oliver Nelson on albums like Stolen Moments: Celebrating Oliver Nelson (Acoustical Concepts, 2017) and Contagious Words (Acoustical Concepts, 2011). For his ...

Album Review

Ron Thomas / Paul Klinefelter: Duo

by Budd Kopman
October 27, 2016

One of the wonderful things about jazz is that it can be appreciated from more than one angle, oftentimes simultaneously: pure entertainment, art as entertainment, art as beauty and art as intellect among others. Some of this, of course, relates to music in general, but jazz as a genre has moved beyond any stylistic boundaries to the point where no one can claim any particular sub-genre to represent “jazz." This push-pull aspect of jazz allows a player to ...

Album Review

Ron Thomas/Paul Klinefelter: Duo

by Dan McClenaghan
July 7, 2016

Pianist Ron Thomas' talents range widely, from his Karlheinz Stockhausen-influenced electric outings like Elysium (Vectordisc, 2009), through his fluid free association piano trio sets, Music In Three Parts (Art Of Life Records, 2006) and Doloroso (Art of Life Records, 2006), to his mainstream outings that draw their inspiration from the late pianist Bill Evans--Two Lonely People (Vectordisc, 2011) and Blues For Zaranthustra (Art Of Life Records, 2008), a pairing a duo set with bassist Paul Klinefelter. Duo is ...

Album Review

Ron Thomas: Duo

Read "Duo" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer

by Victor L. Schermer
June 9, 2016

The poet John Keats famously wrote: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever." That's the kind of album this is. It's one stretch of beautiful playing from beginning to end. It's not a “statement," it's not a “thing," it's not a “groove." It's just music that, taken as a whole becomes an “objet d'art," something special to have in your collection and listen to over and over again because its perfection draws you towards it. Pianist Ron ...

Album Review

Ron Thomas Trio: Impatience

Read "Impatience" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
April 1, 2015

A brief glance at pianist Ron Thomas' website is enlightening, to say the least. He chronicles his life there, providing a detailed biography, a rundown of commercially available compositions, a list of his colleagues, mp3 files, a discography, essays, videos, photos, teaching information, and a list of influences, with names both familiar (Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock) and relatively unknown (Ron Dewar, Dennis Sandole) to many jazz fans and musicians. But to really get to know Thomas, you need only spend ...

Album Review

Ron Thomas: Impatience

Read "Impatience" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 2, 2015

There is something elemental about the jazz piano trio. It is classically called the “Rhythm Section," that practical subset of a larger ensemble that produces the pulse that propels the band and compositions the band plays. It is also the most enduring of jazz performance formats that has included the giants of jazz. Whether it is the cathedral of Oscar Peterson, the interior world of Bill Evans or the durable consistency of Red Garland and Gene Harris, the jazz piano ...