Pat Thomas + Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra @ Glasgow Jazz Festival - June 21st 2025
Apr 26, 2025
At this year’s edition of Glasgow Jazz Festival, GIO are delighted to be performing with spellbinding pianist Pat Thomas.
The collaboration celebrates the music of Thelonious Monk, presenting new compositions featuring a double concerto for real and imaginary pianists, Monkish dreamscapes, and a piece that merges every Thelonious Monk composition in a joyous mélange.
Pat Thomas studied classical piano from aged 8 and started playing Jazz from the age of 16. He has since gone on to develop an utterly unique style - embracing improvisation, jazz and new music. He has played with Derek Bailey in Company Week (1990⁄91) and in the trio AND (with Noble) – with Tony Oxley’s Quartet and Celebration Orchestra and in Duo with Lol Coxhill.
“Sartorially shabby as Thomas may be, and on first impression even rather stolid, he has a somewhat imperious charisma that’s immediately amplified when he starts to play. Unlike other pianists whose virtuosity seems to be racing ahead of their thought processes Thomas always seems supremely in command of his gift, and his playing, no matter how free and ready to tangle with abstraction, always carries a charge of authoritative exactitude.” - The Jazzmann