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Artist
Ken Thomson
12+ albums
contemporary classicalClassicalcomposerinstrumentalnew york
about
Ken Thomson, Brooklyn-based clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer, has been involved in music since he got his first xylophone at age 3. He plays saxophone and writes for the NY-based punk/jazz band Gutbucket, with whom he has toured internationally to eighteen countries over seven years and released 3 CDs. He is a founding board member of Anti-Social Music, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the work of emerging composers. Ken Thomson, a staple of New York City’s contemporary music and jazz communities, is widely regarded for his ability to blend a rich variety of influences and styles into his own musical language while maintaining a voice unmistakably his own. Embracing the combination of complexity in harmony, rhythm, and form while adding a punk-rock aesthetic, Thomson stands alone in his unique corner of today’s multifaceted musical world. As a performer-composer bridging jazz and contemporary music, his latest release with his group Slow/Fast was called Settle. It was praised by The New York Times for its “intricate long-form compositions,” and garnered a five-star review in All About Jazz. The Chicago Reader wrote, “Few musicians travel as assuredly and meaningfully between jazz and new music…. Thomson’s pieces breathe and emanate an infectious energy, with every wend and wind hurtling the music forward rather than showing off the band’s chops.” He has released a CD of his compositions for the heralded JACK Quartet, entitled Thaw, on Cantaloupe Music
