{"id":10754,"date":"2018-12-04T23:05:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T07:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=10754"},"modified":"2018-12-04T23:15:08","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T07:15:08","slug":"thomas-and-groenewald-a-fine-togetherness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/12\/thomas-and-groenewald-a-fine-togetherness\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas And Groenewald: A Fine Togetherness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay Thomas<\/strong> With The Oliver Groenewald<\/strong> Newnet: I Always Knew<\/em><\/a> (Origin)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Thomas, a veteran master of brass and reed instruments, teams with Groenewald, the man he describes in his liner notes as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the perfect fit for me as an arranger.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d With a band that includes ten of the Pacific Northwest\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s major jazz artists, the two explore the possibilities in a dozen ballads from the past nine decades. In the\"\"<\/a> five years or so that the German-born Groenewald has lived near Seattle on an island in Puget Sound, he and Thomas (pictured right) have developed a personal and artistic relationship whose closeness expresses itself in Thomas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s soloing in, through and around Groenewald\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writing. On alto, tenor and soprano saxophones as well as trumpet and flugelhorn, Thomas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s imagination thrives on the scores fashioned with muscularity and delicacy by Groenewald. He interleaves those contrasting attributes on rarely performed post-bebop pieces like Lee Morgan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yama,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Chick Corea\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153October Ballad,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as well as on modern classics including Duke Ellington\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blue Serge,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Tadd Dameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Soultrane\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Billy Strayhorn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ballad For The Very Tired And Very Sad Lotus Eaters.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \"\"<\/a>Groenewald (pictured left) is a member of the Newnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brass section.<\/p>\n

Groenewald\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s originals \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mrs. Goodnight,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with its fluid Thomas trumpet solo, and the title tune, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Always Knew\u00e2\u20ac\u009d could well become part of the rarified company they keep here with such established repertoire items as Mel Torm\u00c3\u00a9\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Born To Be Blue\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and Lucky Thompson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Deep Passion.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Not all of the choices have the staying power of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Know What Love Is\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stardust,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the pieces that close the album. But then, few compositions in jazz history have. The point in recommending this album is not familiarity, except in the sense of the relaxation, friendship and musicianship with which Thomas and Groenewald inform the music.<\/p>\n

(In the current edition of All About Jazz<\/a><\/em>”\u00a0 online, Paul Rauch has a seven-part history of Jay Thomas with details of his long, influential career.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay Thomas With The Oliver Groenewald Newnet: I Always Knew (Origin) Thomas, a veteran master of brass and reed instruments, teams with Groenewald, the man he describes in his liner notes as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the perfect fit for me as an arranger.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d With a band that includes ten of the Pacific Northwest\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s major jazz artists, the two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}