Chris Thomas – Bass

Grammy nominated, Christopher Thomas was born in 1970 in St. Louis, Missouri. Although he’s the only musician in his family, he took to music as if he were a born legacy. His musical venture began with the violin, then quickly gravitated towards the cello and finally settling with the double bass at age 13. He began his bass studies under the guidance of Henry Lowe, Principal Bassist of the St. Louis Symphony. He later attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison where he studied under the tutelage of Richard Davis. He continued his education at the University of New Orleans, studying music fundamentals, jazz improvisation and played weekly shows with his mentor and teacher, Mr. Ellis Marsalis.

Over Christopher’s past 35 years of his professional musical career, he has had the pleasure of recording and touring with such great artist as: Ellis Marsalis – Betty Carter – Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra/ Wynton Marsalis – Harry Connick Jr. – Terrence Blanchard – Joshua Redman – Marianne Faithful – Daniel Lanois – Everlast – Macy Gray – The Soul Of John Black – Ray Lamontagne – Brian Blade and The Fellowship Band – Brain Blade “Mama Rosa Band” – Ayo – Jean-Louis Murat – Norah Jones – Melody Gardot – Laïka & The Unit

I can’t believe that it has taken me this long to get to this tune but here we are. This is the wonderful Chris Thomas bass part for the tune ‘Spiritual Awakening’ from the 1990 Marcus Roberts album, ‘Deep In The Shed’. The track is a slow, slow blues with a twist but the highlight is Wycliffe ‘Pine Cone’ Gordon’s trombone solo, for me, one of the best Jazz solos ever recorded (if you listen carefull7y, you can hear people clapping after the one chorus solo, something that you never hear on a studio recording but this solo is something else, it really is. I tried transcribing it but it’s impossible.