President of the Jazz Alliance of Trinidad and Tobago (JATT), Sean Thomas, has been invited to play T&T's national musical instrument, the steelpan, at one of the most prestigious jazz events in the world. It will be the first time pans are used in the ceremony of its kind. The Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition and 25th anniversary gala concert is scheduled to take place on September 12 at The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC. The event will be hosted by Herbie Hancock, Phylicia Rashad, and Billy Dee Williams, and the ceremony will honour Aretha Franklin with the institute's 2011 Maria Fisher Founder's Award.
The line-up of performers on the night is a veritable who's who of the greatest living jazz artistes. They include: Ellis Marsalis; TS Monk Jr; Dianne Reeves; Marcus Roberts; Wayne Shorter; Ron Carter; Jimmy Heath; Terence Blanchard; Dee Dee Bridgewater; Terri Lyne Carrington; John Patitucci; Joey DeFrancesco; Ambrose Akinmusire; John Beasley; ELEW; Kurt Elling; Kevin Eubanks; Roberta Gambarini; Lionel Loueke; Joe Lovano; Christian McBride; Jason Moran; Gretchen Parlato; Danilo Perez; Ben Williams; all past competition winners, and many more. Thomas will be amongst illustrious company.
Although he has been known mostly as a drummer for the last 14 years after graduating from the institute and returning to T&T in 1998, some would remember his years as a pan soloist, teacher and arranger. He has been manager of the Moods Steel Orchestra since the death of his father, pan tuner Leroy Thomas, and he has also been a judge in numerous steel pan competitions. Thomas returned to Trinidad in 1998 eager to turn local musicians and Trinbagonians on to jazz music. In that mission, together with his wife Patrice and friends, he created ST Jazz Incorporated Ltd and Production One Ltd and then went on to create The Jazz Alliance of T&T. He launched educational programs such as The Jazz Artists Workshop, Summer Holistic Jazz Workshop, Jazz Movie Sundays and Rhythm Stories presented to pre school children.
Hundreds of musicians profited from and graduated from his workshops. He also launched events such as Jazz on the Avenue, In The Realm of Masters, Jazz Artists On The Greens, Jazz at Corner Bar, Jazz at Aura, Intimate Sessions at Drink Wine Bar, Brazilian Jazz at Satchmo's, Jazzolypso, The Trinidad & Tobago Jazz Festival, introducing Chutney Jazz, Jazzup The Runway and Jazzang. Thomas is currently in New York, reconnecting with the jazz community there as he prepares for his big performance where he promises he will launch a new concept and approach to pan playing. He is also hoping that JATT can establish firmer relationships with organisations such as the Ministry of Arts & Multiculturalism, and the Ministry of Education, as well as with the local private sector, based on what his organisation has done thus far for the arts, the community and local musicians.
"Our children especially, are hardly exposed to beautiful music staged at our parks, be it classical, jazz, latin, calypso etc, in order to experience what live performances really means. "They need to be hearing music played at the highest degrees of skill and virtuosity. I believe this is critical for any society and would definitely produce a softer side to communicating with each other as they progress. "Most importantly, we need to find ways to encourage local musicians young and old to play our music more with each other -not necessarily with electronics-but with acoustic instruments, as this presents the opportunity for dialogue between ourselves so we can learn more about each other and how we feel as a people," he said.