Sunday, 11/18 7:30pm

Steve Thomas and the Co-Conspirators will perform original jazz songs from their CD, SPIRITS PASSING THROUGH. The Boston Phoenix says: "Steve Thomas is a Boston-based jazz singer but--surprise--his focus is almost all on original pieces. He writes his whimsical, sometimes surreal literate story songs for his band the Co-Conspirators--vibist Rich Greenblatt, bassist John Funkhouser, and drummer Gary Fieldman. The tunes mix traditional rhythms from New Orleans and Brazil with the harmonies and angular phrasing of jazz."

Steve Thomas says, "Maybe all we really are is spirit, the spark that draws people to us, the trail we leave behind. The songs on SPIRITS PASSING THROUGH were prompted by the spirits of friends, my father, black-sheep-of-the-family Uncle Chuck Fisher, and a mysterious Mona Lisa grin . . . all breathed into life, spirit into material form, by John, Rich, and Gary, true co-conspirators.

“I’m a jazz vocalist, so I want to hear my songs in the context of a live, improvising jazz ensemble. The Co-Conspirators and I play on the songs, the way jazz musicians do, so they open up in performance and really fly. We use vibraphone, in place of piano, because it gives everyone more room to maneuver. There’s more air in the ensemble that way, and you can hear the individual lines better.

“We're also going for the feeling of a real ensemble, not just a singer backed by a rhythm section. Instead of a few guys playing one guy's songs, it's a band, something way bigger than the sum of its parts. We can go from spare lyricism to a big hollering band improv and back again ("Time/Space") or nail a funky New Orleans second-line groove in a song that's really about, well, death ("Beads"). We're playing my songs, but as the vocalist in the band I have to hold up my end of things. John, Rich, and Gary are great players--much in demand--and leaders of their own bands. They keep me on my toes. Which is how it should be.
“The songs and arrangements draw on all the kinds of music I‘m attracted to, not just jazz. But that’s what jazz musicians always do. Besides the Brazilian and New Orleans influences, there's a nod to old-school Muscle Shoals soul (“By the Factory Wall”). And “So Cold” recasts a Wayne Shorter tune with a funk bass/drum rhythm and a lyric that draws on old Appalachian murder ballads. But when we play these songs, we still operate like a jazz band. Improvising, ensemble flow, building up a head of steam, swing -- these are the things that are important to us as musicians and as a band.”

Steve Thomas is a composer-lyricist and jazz vocalist based in Somerville, MA. He released his latest CD of original jazz songs, SPIRITS PASSING THROUGH by Steve Thomas and the Co-Conspirators, in the fall of 2006. His first CD of original songs, GOT THE MAP, vocal/piano duets with pianist Ben Schwendener, was released on Gravity Records in 2002. He’s performed with his band, the Co-Conspirators (John Funkhouser, bass; Rich Greenblatt, vibes; Gary Fieldman, drums), Too Tall Trees (a vocal/bass duo with John Funkhouser), with the trios of pianists Molly Flannery and Mark Shilansky, and with pianist Ben Schwendener around the Boston area - at the Acton Jazz Cafe, Zeitgeist Gallery, Rutman's Violins, Wellesley Free Library, Somerville Museum, and McIntyre and Moore Booksellers; with the Cambridge-based Brazilian percussion ensemble Samba Tremeterra (Cambridge River Festival and numerous parades and private functions); in the Get Up choir with pop/rock singer-songwriter Bleu (Boston Music Awards at the Wang Center, the Hatch Shell, and rock clubs the Paradise, the Middle East, and T.T. the Bear's Place). He’s also had a parallel career as a performance artist, developing solo and collaborative pieces that combine a cappella singing, talking, and movement, with performances at Mobius, Wellesley and Middlebury Colleges, and other venues in Boston and northern Vermont. He received a Somerville Arts Council grant for his hour-long solo piece RECLAMATION PROJECT. He’s studied theory and composition with Ben Schwendener, jazz voice with Dominique Eade, and Brazilian percussion with Jose Ricardo de Souza and Deraldo Ferreira.
 
John Funkhouser (bass): Educated at Cornell University and at New England Conservatory of Music, John is now a professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He has appeared on numerous TV shows and documentaries, including NBC’s Today Show, CNN, Lifetime, CBS’s 60 Minutes, German Public Television, appeared on NPR, played at the Blue Note and Birdland in NYC, the Kennedy Center and the National Gallery in DC, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Festival du Jazz a Toulon, and concerts in Paris, Singapore, Curacao, and over a dozen major US cities. John performs professionally on both bass and piano, drawing on an unusually wide variety of styles, including Cuban, Brazilian, North Indian classical, klezmer, Bulgarian, Greek, Irish, Western classical from Bach to avant-garde, film music, and all kinds of American popular traditions, including folk, blues, bluegrass, gospel, funk, rock, hip-hop, and, of course, jazz. John has performed as a sideman with the New England Philharmonic Orchestra, big bands, small jazz groups, and hip-hop bands with dozens of the leading lights in New England and beyond: Steve Gadd, Abe Laboriel, Herb Pomeroy, Bob Gulotti, Ran Blake, Yoron Israel, Ron Savage, Laszlo Gardony, Lucianna Souza, Stephen Drury, and 14-year-old autistic savant Matt Savage, to name a few. He also leads his own trio, FunkHouse, which has done two national tours and appeared at several jazz festivals.

Rich Greenblatt (vibraphone): Rich is a vibraphonist with "dazzling speed and a truly magical tone," writes John Blenn in Good Times magazine. Rich synthesizes the bluesy, bebop style of Milt Jackson with the four-mallet chordal approach of Gary Burton, resulting in a warm, swinging sound all his own. He has performed and recorded with jazz artists Kurt Elling, Billy Mitchell, Kevin Hayes, Winard Harper, Dennis Irwin, and Joe Hunt. Rich has recorded two CDs as a leader on Brass Taco Records: HOT AND DRY and MOOIN'. He is currently on the faculty at Berklee College of Music and was awarded the 2006 Berklee Faculty Fellowship. See richgreenblatt.com

Gary Fieldman (drums): Percussionist, composer, and teacher, Gary is active in a number of artistic dimensions. Educated at Boston University and New England Conservatory, he has performed and recorded with some of today’s most important musicians, including Joanne Brackeen, David Liebman, Bill Frisell, Ben Monder, and Bevan Manson, and can be found on numerous recordings, including his own project, FIELD EFFECT, on Rotary Records. Gary's compositions include the narration-with-music piece “Ratty’s Loving Surprise” with the Know Trio, of which he is a member. “Ratty” is the story of a rat who leaves his affiliation with a major symphony orchestra to answer questions of life and art in an underground realm of jazz and philosophical inquiry. Gary also has a number of websites, including museaid.org, devoted to his annual production of a Darfur relief concert, and babelsandjeff.com, a cartoon and commentary starring two dogs who offer opinions and insights on topics ranging from Mahler to the state of today’s religions to the unhealthy contents of a can of dog food. See garyfieldman.com.