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Nick Thabit

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About Me

Dr. John

Yeah, Doctor.. Nick Thabit has studied with Dennis Cristallo, Gary Sykes, Andrew Cyrille, and David Lee. From his late teens he performed and toured with rock bands, always moving towards more instrumental, improvisatory music. He was a student at the University of New Orleans with a major in Jazz Drum Performance during the tenure of Ellis Marsalis and performed at the Sandbar and on the campus public stage. Since then he has performed in the fusion band The Shrimps in New Orleans, Texas blues band The Thing (performing mostly in France), and gigged with the eclectic Pick-up AllStars in NYC, improvisor Doug Lesser, jazz bands the Avi Pavlovich Trio and the Axis Quartet, New York City.

Interdisciplinary situations are a particular interest: in 2003 he took part in Bicycle Music with Adam Fisher, Sabir Mateen, Grant Smith, Jane Wang, and Stefan Zenuik (which included the use of bicycle-based sculptures as musical instruments) at FiveMyles gallery in Brooklyn, NY. He also composed and performed with the Creatures of Habitat performance troupe, in their ongoing multimedia work “Widow's Walk”, performed as a duo with COH founder and tap dancer Stefanie Weber, with her tap ensemble City Steps, and with her collaborative Rhythm and Flow Medicine Show, with Nana Simopoulos, Mike Fahn, and Aimee Gallinus in movement/music impovisation/explorations. For a year he ran a weekly free-improvisation jam session at The Artist's Gallery in Chelsea, New York, drawing musicians from the jazz, classical, experimental, and improv genres.

Since 1999, Nick has also been creating visual art; his latest series of drawings, displayed on nickthabit.com, is concerned with his year in Buenos Aires, Argentina. While there he played with local jazz musicians, renewing his idea of the drums and of composition. Returning to NY, he worked as the drummer for the University of the Streets' Jazz Jam session house band, also playing for a vocal workshop and several benefits. At the same time he contributed to Tom Blatt's Naked Women project, Giovanni Lattaruli's Jazz Out 4tet, and guitarist Charles Ramsey's gigs in a duo setting. Although he enjoys playing standards, Nick is focused on original music projects and seeks out fresh and challenging situations.

Nick Thabit can be reached at: [email protected]

My Jazz Story

Jazz to me is pure pleasure,if it's "modern" enough (think Miles Smiles or Mwandishi). Even if it's not. Incorporates all music everywhere, which is often some form of the blues. As for the conservatory, bring it on; bring it all on, Jazz will gobble it up. A teaching on how to live to breathe, to stay in the moment, attentive, listening, improvising. It awakens long dormant synapses, nerves, spirits, emotions, and hearts. Om...