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Leon Thomas
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Leon Thomas was born in 1937 in East St. Louis, Illinois, and became one of the most striking singers of free jazz. He studied music at Tennessee State University and moved to New York in 1959, where he sang at the Apollo Theater and for Dakota Staton and The Jazz Messengers, among others. In 1961 he briefly joined the orchestra of Count Basie. After his military service in the army he worked with the saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. His best-known contribution from that period is The Creator Has a Master Plan from the 1969 album Karma.
Music and breakthrough
In that same year his first solo record appeared on Bob Thiele's label Flying Dutchman, Spirits Known and Unknown. It was followed by 3 Shades of Blue, The Leon Thomas Album and Gold Sunrise On Magic Mountain, and in 1973 he toured with Carlos Santana's band. Thomas sang with a rich tenor and often broke out, in the middle of a song, into a yodelling, throaty technique that he called soularphone. In it, scat, soul and a search for African roots came together.
Influence
This style influenced singers such as James Moody, Tim Buckley and Bobby McFerrin. Critics called him the John Coltrane of jazz singers. He showed that the human voice in jazz could do more than melody and lyrics alone. Thomas died in New York in 1999.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1969Spirits Known and Unknown
- 19703 Shades of Blue
- 1970The Leon Thomas Album
- 1971Gold Sunrise On Magic Mountain
- 1973Blues and the Soulful Truth
- 1998Zaius
- 2000Leon Thomas in Berlin
- 2002Full Circle
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- After Hours: Session 3NL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Spiritual jazz Genre
Alice Coltrane brought in harp and organ and influences from Indian music; in 1969, Sanders recorded The Creator Has a Master Plan, with the singer Leon Thomas.