Jazz Articles about Ron Thomas

About Ron Thomas

Album Review

Ron Thomas took a few years off since his last CD release, the excellent House of Counted Days (2002). But just this year, the pianist, a commsumate musical artist, has offered up two stellar piano trio outings, Music in Three Parts and Doloroso.Thomas employs similar limitations for both of these sets. In the case of Music in Three Parts, it's a boundary of three chordal rhythmic patterns; with Doloroso, he sets perhaps a looser stricture. The resulting sounds ...

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Album Review

Ron Thomas Trio: Music in Three Parts

Read "Music in Three Parts" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
March 23, 2006

Relative simplicity and a complete lack of pretense are two features that make Music in Three Parts such a standout sound. The disc's six tunes are based on three different musical figures: the three “Improptus" on a figure in D minor; the two “Caprices" on a figure in C major; and the final “Epilog" on a figure in A flat major. The result is a alluring sound that mixes a mesmerizing melodic beauty with some of the finest trio interaction ...

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Interview

The Jazz Artistry of Ron Thomas: Interfacing Jazz and Classical Music

by Victor L. Schermer
June 10, 2004

Ron Thomas' persona reminds me a bit of the Archangel Gabriel, who appears on all those great Renaissance paintings playing the trumpet, except that Ron is a pianist. Ron, like Gabriel, stays in the background, but has a big influence on what goes on, and you know he's always up to something musical while affecting the destinies of those around him. A jazz pianist who resides in Coatesville, PA, he came up in the 'sixties', formed a close personal and ...

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Album Review

Ron Thomas Quartet: The House of Counted Days

Read "The House of Counted Days" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
February 9, 2003

Pianist Ron Thomas leads a quartet with a trumpeter (John Swana) out front on The House of Counted Days, and two things jump out: an obvious Miles Davis influence, and some striking originality.The opener, “Fancy of Fate," pushes you off balance. An oddly percussive workout, jaunty, ebullient, crisp; and the frame of reference is anybody's guess. Bassist Tony Marino works that big fat rubber band thing (four of them) on upright--muscular, with gorgeous sustaining power--while trumpeter Swana bites ...