FRED TOMPKINS - The Fourth Arch -to Freedom
Self Release CD: No number
Fred Tompkins: flute and bass flute; and variously - Greg Mills: piano; Maryse Carlin: piano; Johanna Nordhorm: voice; Gary Sykes: drums; Kyle Honnicutt: drums; Steve Davis: drums; Charlie Dent: drums
Recorded at Shock City Studios, St Louis, Missouri, US and at Tompkins’ home studio
This is a collection of Fred Tomkins’ own choice of his recent pieces, relying on what he has described as Third-Stream Music, a term dating from 1957 and meaning an amalgamation of jazz and classical.
The composer was born in St. Louis in 1943. High school over, he played tenor saxophone in and around town for several years before starting his formal music studies in 1964 at the St. Louis Institute of Music. His strongest influences at this time were jazz artists such as John Coltrane, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and the MJQ, along with classical composers such as Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith.
Over the years, Tomkins had moved to New York and had developed a style of writing all his own, a variety of neoclassical styles underpinned by jazz-like rhythmic structures, which is what we can hear here.
The piece on this album which I found outstanding is the vocal The Sun (Track 5) sung by Johanna Nordhorm and accompanied by Maryse Carlin and Kyle Honnicutt. It stands out from the rest because it is completely different and seems to occupy a genre all its own. Everything else sounds a bit light by comparison.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Self Release CD: No number
Fred Tompkins: flute and bass flute; and variously - Greg Mills: piano; Maryse Carlin: piano; Johanna Nordhorm: voice; Gary Sykes: drums; Kyle Honnicutt: drums; Steve Davis: drums; Charlie Dent: drums
Recorded at Shock City Studios, St Louis, Missouri, US and at Tompkins’ home studio
This is a collection of Fred Tomkins’ own choice of his recent pieces, relying on what he has described as Third-Stream Music, a term dating from 1957 and meaning an amalgamation of jazz and classical.
The composer was born in St. Louis in 1943. High school over, he played tenor saxophone in and around town for several years before starting his formal music studies in 1964 at the St. Louis Institute of Music. His strongest influences at this time were jazz artists such as John Coltrane, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and the MJQ, along with classical composers such as Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith.
Over the years, Tomkins had moved to New York and had developed a style of writing all his own, a variety of neoclassical styles underpinned by jazz-like rhythmic structures, which is what we can hear here.
The piece on this album which I found outstanding is the vocal The Sun (Track 5) sung by Johanna Nordhorm and accompanied by Maryse Carlin and Kyle Honnicutt. It stands out from the rest because it is completely different and seems to occupy a genre all its own. Everything else sounds a bit light by comparison.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
