Carei Thomas

From Minnewiki

A Brief Narrative Account of My Career:

I was born July 23, 1938 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where my career got its start. I took piano lessons from a teacher who also taught Phyllis Hyman, and where my early years were spent in the culturally diverse Hill District. Some major musical influences included Edward Kennedy Ellington, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, The Ravens, Francis Poulenc, Alexander Scriabin, Bela Bartok, Joe Loco, and the sanctified church choirs. I still remember hearing Woody Herman's Herd do "Early Autumn" while cleaning wall paper in our living room. This incident swept me enamoured into the world of jazz composition.

My family moved to Chicago during my teenage years. While in high school, I formed a doo-wop group with Philip Upchurch on guitar. I continued expanding my artistry through an interest in spontaneous vocal composition ala Eddie Jefferson and King Pleasure. I would sit in vocally around town with Sun Ra, Jack DeJohnette, and Judy Roberts, putting spontaneous lyrics to their music and cult-classics like “Epistrophy,” “Equinox," "Four,” “When Lights Are Low,” “Well, You Needn’t,” and many others. In 1959, I chanced to meet Gregory “Duke” Hall who was staying with James Spaulding and Herbie Hancock on Chicago’s West Side (where I lived). This was a pivotal time in my development. “Duke” introduced me to elemental piano voicings and four-part modern vocal harmony like the Hi Lo’s and the Four Freshman used. While in the Duke Hall Quartet, I sang regularly throughout the Chicago-Evanston area.

In 1966, I sat in on piano with Dexter Gordon and Art Taylor in Paris, and debuted my first significant jazz ensemble at Dunbar High School which Ari Brown of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble fame was a part. I began an alliance with members of the internationally-known Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). In 1968, I sat in with Archie Shepp at Mother Blues on Wells Street in “Old Town” Chicago. In 1969, I co-founded, with Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, a group called “The Light,” which Wadada Leo Smith and Jerome Cooper were a part. During that time, I was also encouraged by Muhal Richard Abrams, Steve McCall and Henry Threadgill and continued playing piano as a means to realize or hear “outside” the compositions going on “inside” my head . . . soul . . . self. I was quite honored, in 1970, to gig with Marion Brown, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre and Steve McCall at Alice’s Restaurant on Chicago’s North Side.

In 1972, I moved to Minneapolis and briefly studied composition with Dominick Argento at the University of Minnesota. During this period, Reginald Buckner was my mentor and introduced me to many connections between “jazz form” and “classical” music. I began developing several controlled improvisational concepts all of which exemplify how I want to utilize composition in fresh ways (ever going back and forth chronologically in pendulum fashion), uniting that which was with the ever-present possibilities of “now time.”

In the 1980’s, another evolution of these controlled improvisations was my “Brief Realities.” These are an ever-changing series of purely invented music often spiced with cells or fragments of written material acting as connective tissue. I feel this improvisational concept gives performers a structure that defines and focuses content while offering a broad choice of source material harmonically, temporally, dynamically and culturally. Within this tonal order, invention/improvisation ignites the developmental process that creates the true composition (and allows it to remain everchangingly fresh). All of my compositional concepts that manifested thereafter are efflorescences of this "Brief Reality" concept.

I have always been interested in the healing aspects of sound and color and in having my artform be more than a performer/spectator one, with “down to earth” functionality. My “Cartoon” compositions are ideal for children and/or non-musician audience participation. Cartoons allow or suggest to the instrumentalist/performer to snatch fragma of thematic material and expand it. We learn the piece the way “doo-wop” singing groups in my inner-city neighborhood learned songs -- by doing them over and over until, voilá, the piece is born.

In the 1990’s, I added to my work the “smoke and mirrors” of acoustical and electronic music considerations (Phononomalies). I am interested in continuing to develop these tonal fabrics (sound designs) that can be used as a canvas accommodating the collaborative endeavors of poetry, spoken work, dance, video, visual artforms, theatre, etc. along with their closest friend ... Silence.

The impact of my work in the Twin Cities has maybe best been expressed by some of our art critics: Tom Surowicz in a Twin Cities Reader article said, "Thomas' music is playful, harmonious, energetic, dynamic, buoyant, and one-of-a-kind. It's more life-affirming than a bushel of stuffy string quartets, or a Sahara of dry computer compositions. Thomas' work is indeed macro, beaming out in a multitude of directions." And, Mr. Surowicz in another Reader article said, "Carei Thomas' fanciful original jazz is one of the most joyous noises the Twin Cities musical community has to offer." Jim Meyer in City Pages said, “The elusive but ebullient keyboard cosmonaut, Carei Thomas, spiritual godfather of the local cool bop scene, debuts a new trio this weekend . . . Thomas promises cells of standard jazz material set within free improvisation. I promise a totally hip after-hours gig." Bob Protzman in a St. Paul Pioneer Press article in 1997 referred to me as "a major force on the local avant-garde jazz and new-music scene for 20 years." Dr. Carleton Macy, Music Chair at Macalester College, said the following about my work, “Thomas’ compositions are unusual and multi-faceted; they encompass an historic range of musical styles, expressing social and personal experiences and observations. Carei brings with him an infectious sense of community and unity of purpose which is likewise communicated in his music.”

“Poemmetry” is a spatial-kinetic-music-word concept. It is using words, phrases and onomatopoetic expressions in conjunction with larger developed works of poetry similar to Jaap Blonk's musings. The participants can take on varying formations (dyads, triads, etc.). Poemmetry utilizes poetry and the audience in making the compositional fabric work. This is similar to the way fragments of written musical material hold “Brief Realities” together (as a kind of skin or connective tissue)

I am a 68 year old who, after experiencing an illness called Guillain-Barré Syndrome, discovered I was touched with this “raconteur style” of expression which needs development and exposure. The development of this “raconteur style” also explores my improvisational concept of “Brief Realities.”

Like a Gospel Holy Roller Party, my performance pieces draw narrative materials from non-linear, fractal-like formations of story and expression. Interpretation and improvisation expand our view of time and place to where memory and experience become signifiers in a complex semiotic mix of language, sound, and performance. My interest is to elevate the listening audience to some experiential place where emotions are readily “juxtaported” by sound and etymological word content (vernacular reconstruction).

I have been also been involved in developing my “Unusual Designs/Atypical Settings” (UDAS) experiences, which utilize venues of varying size and design to explore experimental performances. Having always been enamored with the end results of well-developed cross-designing of genre and ensemble fabric that lend themselves to involvement on all levels (i.e., students, amateurs, audience participation, etc.), I decided to find ways for artists/educators to perform and present workshops or discussions to build up the avenues of familiarization, allowing historic connections to happen. These UDAS experiences have included many artists of varying disciplines and have taken place at a variety of venues.

I am enamored by things both micro and macro such as “in a drop of sea water are all the ingredients in an ocean.” William Blake expresses it in his Auguries of Innocence – “To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.” I also align myself with a cause and effect philosophy exemplified in the Lotus which comes from the muddy swamp bearing both the seed and the flower . . . process and product are one.

I see the development of my work as carrying history forward while utilizing “now time” experiences. I like to create compositions in fresh ways - going back and forth chronologically in pendulum fashion - pushing new musical ideas forward while keeping history alive. I am an improviser, so my compositions are written to be “runways;” designs to offer unique and expansive ways to involve oneself in one’s self and in one’s reality (environment). I use my improvisational composition concepts to get at freeing up ways of expressing one’s connection to the universe.

Bands

"Mining Our Bidness" - Roaratorio label

"Sound Window(s) V: Pinnacles" - Innova label

"Ancestor Energy" - Ancestor Energy label

Audio

www.roaratorio.com

www.kitundu.com/cpc

www.innig.net/music/inthehands

www.mnartists.org

www.composersforum.org