Preservation Hall Jazz Band New Orleans Preservation Vol. 1 CD

Born in Moscow, ID 29 years ago, Thomas regularly attended the local Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival with his family. When he was four or five, he attended a performance by the Ray Brown Trio which left a strong impression. He started piano lessons shortly after, but switched his focus to the trumpet four years later. "I found that I could make sounds on the trumpet with only three keys, which seemed so much simpler than wind instruments with all their keys. There were two universities within seven miles of where I lived, and I started taking private lessons. I frequently played with older local musicians, and soon started getting calls for whatever work there was in the small town area. Most important for me was a weekly gig with a quintet during junior high and high school. It taught me what it's like to perform 3 1/2 to 4 hours at a time. I learned a lot of tunes, and many of the ins and outs of playing in a small jazz ensemble." After he won both the Lionel Hampton High School Trumpet Competition (performing "Round Midnight," "All Blues," and "Groovin' High,") and the International Trumpet Guild Jazz Competition in Gothenborg, Sweden in 1997, he began to treat the trumpet as a serious career choice. Attending the University of Northern Colorado, Thomas chose to work towards a classical degree because he wanted to improve his technical ability on the trumpet. 'At the same time, I was opened up to composing during my time at UNC. Many people encouraged me to develop my skills in that area. It was during this time that I realized the correlation between performing and composing. The better a composer one is, the better a player one can be and vice versa.