THE CATS by Jay Thomas, John Hansen, Chuck Kistler, Adam Kessler

This band has always had a fondness for the blues feeling that was prevalent in Hard Bop and Boogaloo music. In Boogaloo music there is also an element of Latin as in Jive Samba and Song For My Father and others. This group has been playing together for a couple of years and we love to groove… and the chemistry is loose and communication is easy. We love to have fun and in this project we have revisited some very familiar Boogaloo standards and had fun with them! Because “life” likes to do it different we have put our own stamp on all this material as you will hear. This band is a cooperative and the music is a result of the group deciding on what to play and how to play it. The members of this group are also leaders of groups… but in this band we are all equal. Hope you enjoy this offering… Just a word of warning if you happen to be dancing and suddenly realize the song is in 7/4 or 5/4 …don’t worry it happens to the best of us. Ha!
This music goes back to the sixties with Horace Silver and Herbie Hancock, Cannonball Adderley, Ramsay Lewis, Jimmy Smith etc. It was like hard bop in the sense that it reconnected with people on a more visceral level. So much modern music is from the head/intellect, so, today’s jazz is often missing some of the " heart" of the jazz that communicated to more people. It's not JUST creativity that is involved, it is also important how the music FEELS.
This project is perfect for the band because: (a) We like It (b) We can insert the intellectual cutting edge stuff in a genre/package that really supports the dance tradition of music, and has elements that everyone hears and understands and can feel in their flesh and bones.
(c) We are interested in increasing the jazz audience by making it more accessible to a wider listening base…. rather than the trend to make it a sport that can only be appreciated by jazz musicians themselves.
Jay Thomas 2012

Jay Thomas, a native of Seattle, is a versatile multi-instrumentalist (trumpet, flugelhorn, alto, tenor, soprano, and flutes). He is a consummate craftsman and an emotionally charged improviser. Anyone who has encountered Jay's music during his 50-odd-year career will testify to numerous qualities synonymous with the heart of jazz.

jaythomasjazz.com