“Evolution of Jay Thomas” by Andrew Fruend

This is how Jazz Times' Doug Ramsey characterized Jay Thomas in his review of Jay's new CD, Blues For McVouty: "Thomas provides the modern mainstream satisfactions of his trumpet, flugelhorn and tenor saxophone, which, if he were headquarted in New York instead of Seattle might have made him as well known as he deserves to be."

It's good to be reminded by a leading writer of a leading national jazz publication that Jay Thomas is a player who merits wide general recognition. Though still in his early forties, Jay has been gigging around Seattle for almost three decades. A fixture in local clubs and on local recordings, equally adept and recognizable on a half dozen brass and wind instruments, his ubiquity, general excellence and lack of stridency sometimes result in his being taken for granted. We hear another poised, full-toned, lyrical solo and tell ourselves, "Oh, that's Jay." We're spoiled! As Doug Ramsey puts it, "His fluidity and control impart a surface smoothness that could lull the casual listener into overlooking the daring of his improvisations."

Jay Thomas is a gentle man who's sly around the edges. Of muscular build, he adopts the forward thrust of a fighter when addressing his trumpet, but his music is seldom belligerent. With hooded eyes and a face that's generally a day removed from the visit of a razor, Jay's dreamy sexuality is in evidence physically as well as sonically. He never seems rushed, but he has an off-the-wall, deadpan sense of humor, which lends a subtle bite to his mellifluous playing.

If one of the central demands of jazz is that "you play who you are," then Jay is among our greatest players. At a typical concert he will switch between as many as six highly dissimilar horns and always sound exactly like Jay Thomas. Jay's newest toy is a piccolo, that strutting, shrill pip-squeak of the musical kingdom, and damn if he doesn't make it resemble his flugelhorn!

Here is how Jay characterizes his musical conception: "I would say that I have real attention to sound that's emotionally centered. And I try to play pretty, yes. It's a balance between having some fire and also some beauty behind it. My outlook is that there's too much 'loud' in this world. I like 'soft.' It's very sexy and sensual. When you're making love you don't scream into your partner's ear. The other thing I like occasionally is 'slow.' As a culture, we're addicted to noise and speed. I like to get away from that at times.

In his review of Blues For McVouty, Doug Ramsey suggests that Jay should record with other "accomplished Northwest players in addition to Peterson." Sounds good - until one realizes that if Jay had recorded his CD exclusively with locals, Jazz Times might never have given it a listen. But if Ramsey is serious, he should be looking forward to an upcoming recording from Jay's other exciting recent project, the new Braz/jazz band Evolution.

Jay says, "Right now I'm really caught up in that band. It took awhile to figure out what to do with Evolution, and that's what's so nice about it. We have this laboratory-Josh, Mark, Luis, Miguel, Vineet and Becca. We're not in a hurry to come up with one set of arrangements or guide-lines of how the music is to be played. We listen to each other. It's not a mechanical situation. Music can breathe if it's done with a kind of loving interconnected awareness of one's band mates.

There is some deep stuff going on in Latin America - not just happy Brazilian music. Jazz has gone through that culture and now, as a jazz musician, I'm getting refreshed by this new influence, that itself has been pollinated by jazz. And their harmonies are very rich. There are all kinds of room for dissonance and chromaticism. I love Brazilian music - it's full of beautiful, non-functional harmonies."

Of course, music is in the strictest sense all "non-functional." Jay Thomas' life is devoted to beautiful, non-functional harmonies. Luckily, people all over the Northwest, and now all over the country, are getting to hear Jay.
 

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