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Here is Johann Sebastian Bach in transfigured light: with organ chorale preludes, vocal cantata movements and orchestral sinfonias – 24 pieces in all – transcribed for trio and solo piano by Fred Thomas, and threaded into a compelling new sequence by Manfred Eicher.

On Three Or One, Bach’s idiom is respectfully explored by three innovative players, a process Thomas describes as “quietly joyful,” and the trio pieces, primarily drawn from Bach’s Orgelbüchlein, acquire a fresh character in the hands of Kazakh violinist Aisha Orazbayeva and British cellist Lucy Railton, musicians more often associated with contemporary composition’s cutting edge.

Fred Thomas, who makes his ECM New Series debut here, has always worked across contexts and genres, and considers the trio’s wide-ranging experience “an incitement to creativity. Bach often re-used his own material and it is no surprise it came out differently each time. With his imaginative, technical and improvisatory powers, do we really believe that Bach would play the same thing the same way twice?” It’s a good question, and the key to the approach taken on Three Or One.

“Three or One” is out now on ECM Records New Series: www.ecm.lnk.to/ThreeOrOne

“Mesmerizing…utterly beguiles…an illuminating if idiosyncratic Bachian” – BBC Music Magazine

“Thomas’ ECM debut sees him elegantly arrange and reinvent a series of Bach sinfonias, vocal cantata and organ preludes” – The Guardian

“Lyrical and haunting. It’s hard to know what Bach would have thought of it, but it does seem to reveal deep secrets in the music, and it is, well, very much like nothing anyone has heard before” – All Music

 “Let this programme sink in over several hearings and the music will quietly insinuate itself into your next playlist” – Gramophone

“One of the most transportive albums of the year” – Between Sound and Space

 “Fred Thomas is an astonishingly fine musician…highly effective, and deeply affecting” – The Arts Desk

“Magnificent sonorities and meticulous transcriptions from Fred Thomas” – France Musique

“Fred Thomas transfigures the master…interpreted with nuance and extreme sensitivity” – FIP Radio

“The essence of Bach’s music is further magnified. A Bach record to be remembered” – RTBF Belgium

“Immaculately conceived” – Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk

“Wonderfully musical, sensitively communicative” – Fono Forum

“Those led by their emotional response will be touched by Bach’s calm and grace. Church music becomes chamber music” – Stern

“Magnificently performed…Thomas manages to play Bach perfectly, or better still intimately…lively, current, eclectic, contemporary… A precious recording” – Giornale della Musica

“Be prepared for something different from what you can possibly imagine” – Yellow Box

“This is a beautiful album that is flawless in its conception and execution and plunges the listener into Bach’s world with a fresh perspective and set of ears. Essential listening” – JazzViews

“Thomas has shown himself to be both fearless and deferential in his interpretations. He remains faithful to the source, radical in execution but beholden to the intention…an easy, joyful listen”  – Stereophile *****

“Intelligent and musical, sensitive and powerful…the pianist and magician Fred Thomas has created an opus that opens the ears; meditative and contemplative and at the same time expressly offering succour for our thoughts and feelings” – Neue Musik Zeitung

 

 

Recorded 2012/2018

University of Huddersfield,

courtesy of Pierre-Alexandre Tremblay

Engineers: Alex Bonney, Pierre-Alexandre Tremblay and Rob Sutherland (trios),

Elliott Parkin (solos)

Recording producer: Fred Thomas

Liner Photos: Phelan Burgoyne, Francis Fuego, Scarlett Casciello

Cover Photo: Manos Chatzikonstanzis 

Design: Sascha Kleis

Mastering: Christoph Stickel

Executive Producer: Manfred Eicher

An ECM Production

www.ecmrecords.com

Transcriptions by Fred Thomas, published and available to buy from Edition Wilhelm Hansen or Music Sales

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Inhabiting their own stylistic realm encompassing mediterranean folk song, chamber music, improvisation and the world of acoustic jazz, this trio comprises the award-winning singer, multi-instrumentalist and song-writer Alice Zawadzki, joined by two of London’s most distinguished musicians, Fred Thomas and Misha Mullov-Abbado. The clear synergy harnessed by these three musicians is the result of almost a decade’s work together, drawing upon the successes and singular abilities of its members: multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer Fred Thomas, whose recent exceptional album for ECM Records received 5 stars from Gramophone Magazine, Misha Mullov-Abbado, whose stature as bassist and composer has garnered commissions from the BBC Concert Orchestra, and Alice Zawadzki, described by The Guardian as “a genuine original”. The group plays acoustic chamber music, guided by a special emphasis on intimacy, delicacy of sound, space and subtle interaction, qualities which have led them to ECM Records, whose founder Manfred Eicher produced their debut album ‘Za Górami’ in Lugano in 2023.

Album Liner Notes:

Za Górami (Behind the Mountains) is much more than a geographical place, though the cautionary tale of the young Maɫgorzatka certainly paints the Polish Carpathians vividly. An ancient rallying cry, this cryptic phrase summons something transcendental, reminiscent of ’Once upon a time…’ It’s in this spirit of openness that the ten stories of our album Za Górami unfold.

Collected on our travels and taught to us by our friends, these are songs we have learnt and loved together. Though our musical and cultural backgrounds encompass Europe, Russia and South America, we were all three born in England. This happenstance was the product of love, war, exile, the arbitrariness of borders and the yearning for a new life – all themes which are themselves woven through the narratives you’ll hear within. Gathered from Argentina, France, Venezuela, Poland and the deep well of Sephardic culture, these folk tales speak to the moon, the mountains, the rain, the madness of humans and the prophecies of birds.

Our trio relies on the intimacy of deep listening and a trust in our long-standing friendship. The discovery of what each song wanted to be was a patient process of contemplation, omission and distillation of ideas, animated by the flexibility of our instrumentation: voice, piano, double bass, violin, vielle and percussion. Za Górami was recorded behind the mountains of the Lugano Alps, under the nurturing guidance of Manfred Eicher. In a concert hall whose unique acoustic encourages delicacy of sound and space, we strived to be both free and controlled, to tread softly and to summon the night.

Alice Zawadzki, Fred Thomas, Misha Mullov-Abbado

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Kees Boeke and Fred Thomas play French and Italian medieval duos from the Modena & Squarcialupi Codices, as well as the music of Paolo da Firenze, Matteo da Perugia, Giovanni da Cascia, Ciconia, Francesco Landini, Lorenzo Masini and Guillaume de Machaut.

Kees Boeke – recorders
Fred Thomas – vielle

Kees Boeke is an internationally acclaimed artist in the field of early music, specialising in recorders and medieval fiddle both as a performer, teacher and director. He has recorded over 80 CDs with various labels including his own record label, Olive Music, founded in 2001. He has been published as a composer and editor of renaissance and medieval music (Zen-On, Schott, Donemus, Olive Music Editions).

His activities in the realm of medieval music began as a member of Kees Otten’s ensemble Syntagma Musicum in the mid 1970’s, continuing with the renowned ensembles Quadro Hotteterre (1968), Sour Cream (1972), and later Little Consort Amsterdam (1978) and Mala Punica (1989). In 2003 he founded his medieval ensemble Tetraktys.

Professor at the Institut fur Alte Music in Trossingen, Germany, Kees Boeke became Director of the Medieval/Renaissance program there. He was also professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich for 25 years. Presently, he is in his seventh year as director of the medieval summer course Settimana musicale del Trecento in Arezzo, Italy. He regularly gives master classes all over the world including Amsterdam, The Hague, Tokyo, Seoul, Taiwan, Tel Aviv, Palermo and Innsbruck. Kees has lived in Toscana for over 40 years, where he makes organic olive oil. www.o-livemusic.com

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Fred Thomas and South African cellist Abel Selaocoe have been collaborating since 2021, when they recorded the album Where is Home? (Hae Ke Kae) for Warner Classics. Fred Thomas produced and played multiple instruments on this internationally acclaimed album, which featured Yo-Yo Ma and won Songlines Magazine best album of 2022. In a quartet with Dudu Kouate and Alan Keary, Thomas and Selaocoe have toured Europe’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Berlin Philarmonie, Köhlner Philarmonie, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Carnegie Hall, as well as appearing on Later with Jools Holland.

Abel Selaocoe is an exclusive recording artist with Warner Classics and his debut album Where is Home? (Hae Ke Kae) was released on Friday 23 September 2022. His second album is coming in 2025. Selaocoe is redefining the parameters of the cello. He moves seamlessly across a plethora of genres and styles, from collaborations with world musicians and beatboxers, to concerto performances and solo classical recitals. 

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Fred Thomas & Phaedra Ensemble have been collaborating for the past six years. Thomas’ composition ‘Taking a Nap, I Pound the Rice’, for string quartet, percussion, prepared piano and spoken voice, was recorded and released by Phaedra in 2022.

The EP features Phaedra Ensemble string quartet, Maurizio Ravalico (percussion), Jill Feldman (voice) and Fred Thomas on prepared piano. The five-movement piece sets to music texts drawn from various writings of Thelonious Monk, Anton Webern, J.A. Baker, Morton Feldman and John Cage, and then re-assembled into poems by Fred Thomas.

Founded in 2014 by violinist Phillip Granell, Phaedra has evolved from its inception as a string quartet to a larger collective of like-minded performers, drawn from London’s diverse musical landscape. 

2023 sees the culmination of their collaboration with the extraordinary vocalist/composer Meredith Monk, with the forthcoming release of their debut album featuring the first recording of her only string quartet Stringsongs plus two works for larger ensemble. The album will be released on ECM Records.

Previous UK performances include Kings Place, The Barbican, Kammer Klang @ Cafe Oto, Royal Festival Hall & Purcell Rooms, The Royal Opera House, and internationally at  NYU Arts Center (Abu Dhabi), and La Seine Musicale (Paris). They have been broadcast and performed live on BBC Radio 3 and Resonance.fm.

Their ongoing VOX project explores the radical use of the human voice in music and performance, leading to a dozen new collaborative commissions and two concert series, featuring guest artists such as Heloise Werner (The Hermes Experiment), Neil Luck, Laura Moody and Bastard Assignments, alongside performances of Jennifer Walshe, Florent Ghys, Cassandra Miller, David Lang, and many others.

In 2017, they recreated  two albums for live strings with Mercury Award-nominated singer Susheela Raman and performed internationally with Gondrong Gunarto Gamelan (Java) and Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwals (Pakistan)

Since 2015, they have worked with multi-sensory arts collective Bittersuite, creating large-scale immersive experiences, including Held,  a home listening experience developed in response to the Covid-19 crisis.

 

 

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Fred Thomas curates an ongoing series at the legendary Sands Films Studios in Rotherhithe, inviting artists he admires to play duos or small ensembles followed by informal interviews delving into their artistic practice. Featuring Elizabeth Kenny, Abel Selaocoe, Kit Downes, Dudu Kouate, Gerry Hemmingway, Liam Noble, The Magic Lantern, Barnaby Keen, Saied Silbak, Julia Biel, Kadialy Kouyate, Preetha Narayana, Alice Zawadzki, Maurizio Ravalico, Ewan Bleach, Laura Jurd, Rob Luft, Elina Duni and Misha Mullov-Abbado. Production by Sands Films and Olivier Stockman.

https://vimeo.com/showcase/7971315/video/432915104

https://vimeo.com/showcase/7971315/video/435932297

https://vimeo.com/showcase/7971315/video/437873097

 

https://vimeo.com/showcase/7971315/video/450892296

https://vimeo.com/showcase/7971315/video/433153160

https://vimeo.com/showcase/7971315/video/442699746

https://vimeo.com/showcase/7971315/video/437915658

https://vimeo.com/showcase/7971315/video/453405535

 

 

 

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As a fundamental part of his practice, Fred Thomas plays ancient bowed strings instruments such as the viella and viola da gamba, as well as double bass, electric bass, guitar, cavaco and tenor banjo.

 

 

 

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Multi-instrumentalists Ruth Bruckner and Fred Thomas met in Tuscany in 2019, immediately connecting through their love of medieval music and in particular the viella. Performing on combinations of strings, recorders, prepared piano, tenor banjo and voice, their duo is dedicated to recording experiments, the Chantilly Codex, Bach, song-writing, extended techniques and free improv. Their first release is an exquisite madrigal composed by the medieval composer and theorist Paolo da Firenze.

Buy ‘Un Pellegrin Uccel” on Bandcamp here


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Fred Thomas has been collaborating with Albanian/Swiss singer Elina Duni since 2017. Their album ‘Lost Ships’ was released in ECM Records in 2020, featuring Rob Luft, Mathieu Michel. Their second album together (‘A Time to Remember’) was released on 2023 on ECM, recorded at La Buissonne Studios by Gérard de Haro.

Elina Duni – Vocals
Rob Luft – Guitar
Mathieu Michel – Flugelhorn
Fred Thomas – Piano and Drums

Born into an artistic family in Tirana, Albania, in 1981, Elina Duni made her first steps on the stage as a singer aged five, singing for National Radio and Television. In 1992, after the fall of the communist regime, she settled in Geneva, Switzerland, with her mother, where she started studying classical piano and thereafter discovered jazz.

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“The familiar prelude to the G major Cello Suite sounding so, so right. Thomas gives the closing Gigue an irresistible swing and finds rare depth and expression in the Allemande. There’s similar magic in Suite No. 3, Bach’s slow Sarabande heart stopping, the double and triple stopping immaculate. You hope he’ll go off and record the remaining four. A multi tracked Thomas completes the album with three Fantasias for Two Viols by Orlando Gibbons, these beautiful, spare works played with elegance and warmth. Absolutely enchanting – do investigate.” – The Arts Desk

Buy or listen to ‘JS Banjo’ from Bandcamp here

Released May 12, 2020

Fred Thomas – tenor banjo

Recorded in St. Mary’s Church, Friston, 2018
Engineered by Phelan Burgoyne
Mixed and Mastered by Alex Bonney
Produced by Fred Thomas

01 Cello Suite No.1 in G Major, BWV 1007 – J.S. Bach
02 Fantasia No. 5 for Two Viols – Orlando Gibbons
03 Fantasia No. 4 for Two Viols – Orlando Gibbons
04 Fantasia No. 1 for Two Viols – Orlando Gibbons
05 Cello Suite No.3 in C Major, BWV 1009 – J.S. Bach

 

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ECM artists Speake/Iverson/Thomas join forces with the extraordinary James Maddren.

Pianist, composer, and writer Ethan Iverson was a founding member of The Bad Plus, a game-changing collective with Reid Anderson and David King. The New York Times called TBP “…Better than anyone at melding the sensibilities of post-60’s jazz and indie rock.” Iverson also has been in the critically-acclaimed Billy Hart quartet for well over a decade and occasionally performs with an elder statesman like Albert “Tootie” Heath or Ron Carter. For over 15 years Iverson’s website Do the Math has been a repository of musician-to-musician interviews and analysis, surely one reason Time Out New York selected Iverson as one of 25 essential New York jazz icons: “Perhaps NYC’s most thoughtful and passionate student of jazz tradition – the most admirable sort of artist-scholar.”

Martin Speake – alto saxophone
Ethan Iverson – piano
James Maddren – drums
Fred Thomas – double bass

Buy the album on Bandcamp

“Martin Speake is one of the most interesting and rewarding alto saxophonists now playing jazz on any continent.” Thomas Conrad – Jazz Times

“Speake is a strikingly talented improviser with a seemingly bottomless well of inspiration.” Encyclopedia of Popular Music

“Speake’s playing can be as enigmatic as his writing. The lyricism and subtlety of both his written and improvised melodies sometimes unfold so gradually that one needs to take a mental step back to absorb it all” John Kelman, All About Jazz

 

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4 Stars **** Jazzwise Magazine.

‘Dick Wag – a Tribute to Richard Wagner’ is a jazz trio dedicated to the notorious German composer, despised and idolised in equal measure. Comprised of the most unlikely collaborators, this tribute band attempts to reconcile itself to opera’s most depraved, politically divisive and love-hated little man. With huge dramatic scenes boiled down to discreet miniatures, each expressed on a single piece of paper and treated like found objects as a jazz musician might, the resulting improvisations teeter surreally between the playful lyricism of swing and the abstraction of modernist prepared piano grooves.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Fred Thomas has masterminded these respectfully profane interpretations of Wagner’s sublime, bombastic, time-stopping, sexually suggestive and earth-shatteringly beautiful creations by assembling a seemingly dysfunctional trio of motley talents. Prepared piano legend Benoît Delbecq’s child-like and profoundly vocal outbursts miraculously synthesise with Ewan Bleach’s unparalleled sense of melody and tone, glued together by Fred Thomas’ foundational bass playing. Deadly serious and and deadly silly, ’Dick Wag’ serves up chunks hacked off masterpieces such as Tristan and Isolde, transforming them into grotesque parodies of Teutonic pomp, luscious jazz ballads, jingoistic marches and Ellingtonian jungle grooves. And if you listen closely, just audible between the cracks of these affectionate caricatures, is the unmistakable sound of Richard Wagner turning in his grave.

“Jazz listeners will be happy to hear that you don’t have to like Wagner to like Dick Wag but ironically it actually might be a good entry point…..an affectionate parody” – Jazzwise Magazine

“Transformation is the word! Unlike the case of the straight-forward transcription of Wagner´s music undertaken by the Uri Caine Ensemble, the Dick Wag Trio explores it in search of new paths towards an unknown musical space…This throbbing sonority acts a musical trough in which Wagner’s material is first drained and then reassembled as a constellation of darkness and light permeated by a movingly sensitive touch of humour – a kind of ironic new age minimalism viewed through the eyes of Debussy and, as always, Ellington.

I left the Vortex as satisfied as I do after a good performance in Bayreuth, with some of the most original paraphrasing of Wagnerian tunes I ever heard ringing in my ears” – MundoClasico

Richard Wagner has met his musical match in the person of the present-day Fred Thomas, an astonishingly versatile composer, arranger and producer…This is someone with a strong instinct to make new things happen in a brilliantly individual way…..a master of many instruments. – London JazzNews

Fred Thomas – double bass and arrangements
Ewan Bleach – reeds
Benoît Delbecq – (prepared) piano

Recorded at Alice’s Loft Studios, London, December 2017
Engineered and mixed by Alex Bonney
Mastered by Peter Beckmann
Artwork by Peter Beatty
Produced by Fred Thomas

Released by Babel Label

Read London Jazz News on this project:

Fred Thomas (new album with Benoît Delbecq and Ewan Bleach: ‘Dick Wag – A Tribute to Richard Wagner’)

https://vimeo.com/showcase/7971315/video/437873097

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Monk Spent Youth is a celebration of the music, the life and the spirit of Thelonious Monk. The original line up formed in 2014 and released their debut recording, “Monk Spent Youth”, in 2019. Buy/Stream on Bandcamp.

 

 

Zac Gvirtzman – piano, bass clarinet, organ, toy piano
Ben Davis – cello
Fred Thomas – drums, bass, prepared piano

Produced by Zac Gvirtzman

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Alex Bonney
Artwork by Jim Glover
Design by Harry Yeatman

 

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Bittersuite are a company exploring how to re-imagine the classical concert through the senses.

 

 

They have developed two original concerts – one for Debussy’s String Quartet in G and one for an original commission with composer, Tanya Auclair. At their core they are about collaboration, experimentation and playing with the senses as a way to enhance the experience of listening to music.


Their concerts to date have been one-to-one experiences. A performer blindfolds an audience member and leads them through a powerful sensory experience, in which gourmet tastes, bespoke scents, choreographed touch and movement have been carefully designed to enhance and lie in harmony with the music.

 

Bittersuite commissioned Fred Thomas to write a piece for String Quartet and Percussion in 2017 for their program “Tapestries”.