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ALBUM REVIEW February 14, 2019

Jay Thomas with the Oliver Groenewald NewNet: I Always Knew

Read "I Always Knew" reviewed by Jack Bowers

There aren't many jazz musicians who play both brass and woodwinds, fewer still who play them as well as the veteran Seattle-based virtuoso Jay Thomas (the word “virtuoso" is used with due care). On I Always Knew, recorded in January 2018 with German-born trumpeter / arranger Oliver Groenewald's NewNet, Thomas traverses the ballad form on a dozen mostly undervalued and too-seldom heard numbers, all but one arranged by Groenewald who also wrote “I Always Knew" and “Mrs. Goodnight." Thomas has ...

ALBUM REVIEW December 12, 2018

Jay Thomas with the Oliver Groenewald Newnet: I Always Knew

By Paul Rauch

Jay Thomas has lived the jazz life. He has endured, overcome, and continued to artistically thrive through all the ruminations of a path chosen by few. While much of his life may form a parallel story to those of many, Thomas' version, his personal adjunct to its litany, is a story of artistic triumph that opened doors seldom walked through. It is a musical legacy in Seattle, unmatched in the colorful history of jazz in his hometown, documented by a ...