Cycles by Ron Thomas

Ron Thomas

John Cage was always a great source of joy

and refreshment for me. I visited him once or

twice a year. We drank strong Japanese tea

together, and I would just let him talk about

whatever he was into at the moment: Satie,

Thoreau, Nanotechnology. We had some great

discussions.

I think it is helpful to remember that John

was a Buddhist and also was very interested

in technology. He really was trying to change

the way both artists and the public thought

about art. And him succeeded.

Ron Thomas

I discovered the music of Karlheinz

Stockhausen around 1958 or 1959 through the

Robert Craft recording of Zeitmasse wind

quintet. After I graduated from the Manhattan

School of Music, I learned that Stockhausen

was going to be in Philadelphia in the spring

of 1964. I appeared in his class at the

University of Pennsylvania. He was substituting

for George Rochberg for the semester. I latched

myself onto him, told him, I sold everything I

had to come here! Ah, a true artist, he said.

He was a young man still - 36, and I was 24.

He gave me a direct insight into post-World

War II musical thinking in Europe. I absolutely

adored him. But he was also way too much of a

blinding light in a way. I needed to recover

from him-a bit too charismatic.

He gave music new forms of expression, new

feelings. Miles Davis called it bettering the

forms of music. Berlioz called it endowing the

music with new actions.

Ron Thomas

Ron Thomas can be heard on other Vectordisc

recordings as a leader (Scenes from a Voyage

to Arcturus, The House of Counted Days with

John Swana and Joe Mullen and 17 Solo Piano

Improvisations). Ron also appears as on the

following Vectordisc recordings The Mike

Falcone Quartet's "Playing Live", Richard

Burton's "Simple Major Simple Minor" and

Kristin Garson's "Music Under the Influence".

Ron has other CDs as a leader (Music in

Three Parts and Doloroso) on Art of Life

Records. He also appears on Pat Martino's

"Live" and Eric Kloss's "One, Two, Free".

For information go to www.RonThomasMusic.com

and www.vectordisc.com.

Information about Criss Cross Jazz recording

artist John Swana can be found at www.johnswana.com

and www.crisscrossjazz.com.

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