Ron Thomas
Somewhere around 1900, Eleazar Thomas migrated from Wales to settle in the coal-mining community of Dickson City, Pennsylvania where he met his wife Martha and had four children: Mary, Benjamin Llywellen, David Wesley, and, my father, “Buddy” (Arja Worthington) born in 1917.
Buddy’s two older brothers, Ben and Wesley, had each begun to work in the mines at the age of nine but Martha refused to allow Buddy, her youngest son, to join them, or so goes the official family story. Martha took her children to her sister’s boarding house in Newark, New Jersey; Eleazar joined them sometime later. It was there that my father met Helen Edna O’Connell, cousin of his friend Terry Foy, Jr. and they were married in 1940. I was born in 1942, and my brother Glenn in 1944.
Bud was a self-taught amateur pianist who deduced the laws of harmony and melody from observing and analyzing piano roll performances. His mother, Martha, and sister, Mary, sang duets to his accompaniments at home. He was deeply attached to the musical traditions into which he was born. He and his brother David Wesley (“Wes”) exchanged records, listened to music together, and clashed noisily over their often conflicting musical convictions and opinions. I grew up listening to Buddy’s piano playing and record collection which contained classical and romantic music and also the great master piano stylists of early 20th century American jazz. My mother too loved music, her taste indicating a slightly more adventurous sensibility, Errol Garner and Reinhold Gliere, for example.
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Album Review
- Rio Crystal by Dan McClenaghan
Building a Jazz Library
Reassessing
Album Review
- Primary Colors by Jerome Wilson
- Primary Colors by Dan McClenaghan
- Duo by Budd Kopman
- Duo by Dan McClenaghan
- Duo by Victor L. Schermer
- Impatience by Dan Bilawsky
- Impatience by C. Michael Bailey
August 15, 2011
Leron Thomas: Dirty Draws, Vol. 3
July 17, 2011
Leron Thomas CD Release Party at 92Y Tribeca on August 6th
February 04, 2011
Leron Thomas / 6 Figures / Logan Richardson at 92Y on February 18
January 08, 2011
Leron Thomas performs at Jason Moran's 713 → 212 songwriter event on...
October 30, 2010
New album by Leron Thomas - "Juxtaposed"
April 16, 2008
Ron Thomas + Paul Klinefelter: "Blues for Zarathustra" on Art of Life...
March 05, 2007
Les Paul (Mon) Mingus Big Band (Tues) Vince Giordano (Wed) the Brubeck...
April 28, 2006
Ron Thomas Trio-"Doloroso" Art of Life Records AL1021-2 CD
August 17, 2005
Festival of New Trumpet Music Continues with Diego Urcola, Leron...
October 21, 2004
The Ron Thomas Trio's "Music In Three Parts" on Art of Life Records
Primary Instrument
Piano
Location
Philadelphia
Willing to teach
Advanced only
Credentials/Background
Contact me at my website www.ronthomasmusic.com for details.
Clinic/Workshop Information
Coaching small groups in performance and composition. Master Classes for Piano and Composition.
Roland Hanna
pianoPat Martino
guitarMiles Davis
trumpetBill Evans
pianoHerbie Hancock
pianoJohn Cage
composer/conductorPhotos
Albums
Rio Crystal
From: Rio CrystalBy Ron Thomas
Origins of Rude
From: Primary ColorsBy Ron Thomas