Customer Reviews

Hommage a Rene Thomas

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Rene Thomas was the best guitar player after Django in Europe, but like the Gipsy master, he died too young in 1975. He was a bebop player who could really cut loose! He played with the greatest musicians of his time (Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Sonny Rollins, etc.). If he had lived in the US, he would be known as one of the top bebop players like Jimmy Raney and Tal Farlow. He had perfect technique and sound, and a lot of punch! His style is quite like Jimmy Raney's, but perhaps a bit more sensual. In this recording he plays with excellent Dutch musicians, and each number is long enough to let you enjoy the progess of his solo. His Paris recordings are all good too. I also love the one he did in NY, Guitar Groove.

a nice set by a great guitarist. It is a shame he is so underrated. Highly recommended. Good luck finding this one, hard to find!!

This live recording, from the last year of his life, shows Rene Thomas in his natural habitat - some Dutch club with a swinging combo of euro-jazzers and bop partisans. Thomas was on the fringes of the European echo of "modern jazz" and played with Sonny Rollins in the late fifites, and surprisingly well with Chet Baker in Italy in the early seventies. Four tunes - no frills, professional and sometimes startingly electric. At times in Rene Thomas' sound you can hear the emergence of the post-rock jazz guitar of abercrombrie, frisell and others. (Don't know why I gave this 3 stars. It's easily worth 4, but I can't seem to edit that part of the review.)