Home » Jazz Musicians » Micah Thomas

Micah Thomas

Micah Thomas was born in 1997 in Columbus, Ohio. He started playing songs on the piano by ear at the age of 2, and shortly afterwards he started private piano training. From his sophomore year of high school onwards, Micah began gigging regularly with violinist Christian Howes, and was a regular faculty member at his annual Creative Strings Workshop from 2015-2018. He also has appeared several times with Byron Stripling and the Columbus Jazz Orchestra as a guest artist, performing with John Clayton and Joshua Redman for their 45th anniversary concert series in 2017. He has also performed throughout Ohio with other musicians including JD Allen, Billy Contreras, Eddie Bayard, George Delancey, Cedric Easton, and Bobby Floyd.

In 2015, Micah Thomas received the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship from the Juilliard School, and received his Master of Music (M.M.) degree in 2020. He is now touring and performing locally and internationally, both as a leader of his own trio, a steady member of the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet, and as a sideman for Ambrose Akinmusire, Lage Lund, Billy Drummond, Zoh Amba, Giveton Gelin, Stacy Dillard, Joel Ross, Nicole Glover, Melissa Aldana, Etienne Charles, Harish Raghavan and others.

In June 2020, Micah Thomas released his first album, “Tide”, which received positive reviews from the New York Journal, The New York Times, JazzTimes, and Financial Times, among others. He has appeared on several albums as a sideman for Immanuel Wilkins, Billy Drummond, Zoh Amba, Giveton Gelin, and Walter Smith III.

In September 2022, Micah Thomas released the album “Piano Solo”. The alblum later received Grand Prix du Disque Award by Académie Charles Cros from France.

Micah was also the curator for the 2022 SWR NewJazz Meeting.


Tags

7
Album Review

Micah Thomas: Reveal

Read "Reveal" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


A drop mic, double plus good treatise by three very ballsy players--pianist Micah Thomas, bassist Dean Torrey, and drummer Kayvon Gordon--Reveal wastes no time stating its case, taking centerstage, and holding that promised land's glories tight. Recorded in one seven-hour session, Thomas's second far-flung outing as a Blue Note leader and his third overall (the self-produced and eloquent Tide, 2019) deceptively chases the history of the piano trio then surpasses it altogether on the opening dynamo “Little Doctor (Take 2)." ...

1
Album Review

Micah Thomas: Reveal

Read "Reveal" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


«Micah Thomas ha uno stile unico --ha detto Fred Hersch-e tutti gli strumenti necessari per dare un contributo importante al mondo del pianoforte jazz». Per Aaron Parks «è uno dei musicisti più eccitanti della sua generazione». Non sono parole di circostanza. Dopo il debutto a suo nome con l'album Tide, inciso nel 2020 a soli 22 anni e il Piano Solo del 2022 anche la stampa specializzata ha espresso superlativi giudizi sul giovane pianista di Columbus già membro stabile ...

18
Album Review

Zoh Amba: Bhakti

Read "Bhakti" reviewed by Mark Corroto


It may be an overused metaphor, but saxophonist Zoh Amba does indeed stand on the shoulders of giants. Proof of that phrase is Bhakti, a tour de force of passionate free jazz. The twenty—something artist draws on traditions born of the 1960s from artists such as Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Peter Brötzmann. Her music, like that of her mentor David Murray's early career explorations, sustains the customs of the 1960's firebrands for a new generation.

35
Album Review

Billy Drummond and Freedom of Ideas: Valse Sinistre

Read "Valse Sinistre" reviewed by Jack Bowers


As one of the world's foremost jazz drummers, Billy Drummond manages to keep busy--so much so that Valse Sinistre, recorded in November 2021, is his first album as leader in more than twenty-five years, following the critically acclaimed Dubai from 1996. This time around, Drummond is at the helm of his Freedom of Ideas quartet: Micah Thomas on piano; Dezron Douglas on bass; and Dayna Stephens on saxophones. Even though he is the nominal leader, Drummond doesn't ...

9
Album Review

Immanuel Wilkins: The 7th Hand

Read "The 7th Hand" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


That we are free to think saxophone firebrand Immanuel Wilkins' 2020 Blue Note debut Omega served as a sign of hope amid a particularly hopeless year puts an awful lot of weight on the shoulders of a 25-year-old and, beyond doubt, colors the fate of The 7th Hand. Humbly and characteristically, Wilkins and company meet the challenge head-on. Searching for nothingness in a culture of excess, “Lift," the seventh and closing exhortation to empathy that guides The 7th ...

Album Review

Immanuel Wilkins: The 7th Hand

Read "The 7th Hand" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Dopo l'acclamato debutto di Omega Immanuel Wilkins disegna un altro avvincente affresco, confermando l'intento a elaborare nuovi percorsi musicali inglobando la tradizione. Con lui ritroviamo i giovani partner del suo quartetto (Micah Thomas al pianoforte, Daryl Johns al contrabbasso e Kweku Sumbry alla batteria) più la bravissima flautista Elena Pinderhughes (già con Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah e Ambrose Akinmusire) e l'ensemble di percussioni Farafina Kan. Mentre conferma il magistrale eloquio strumentale con lunghi, intensi ...

13
Album Review

Immanuel Wilkins: Omega

Read "Omega" reviewed by Paul Rauch


At the moment Omega, the debut solo album of young alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, was released on Blue Note in May 2020, America was ablaze with the fight for justice following the murder by police of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The sessions for the album were recorded prior to the event that propelled the Black Lives Matter movement, and spread to the streets in demand for racial justice like no other time in American history. Yet the album is an ...

Read more articles

Concerts

Apr 12 Fri

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Reveal

Artwork Records
2023

buy

O, Sun

Tzadik
2022

buy

Valse Sinistre

Cellar Records
2022

buy

Bhakti

Mahakala Music
2022

buy

The 7th Hand

Blue Note Records
2021

buy

In Common 2

Whirlwind Recordings
2020

buy

Videos

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.