CMG Outset live stream continues this week with a newly formed group of three highly devoted improvisers hailing from the Portland, Chicago, Minnesota and Bay area scene. Watch them converge online via our twitch website:
https://www.twitch.tv/creativemusicguild

Introducing:
A Triumphal Roar

Ralph Thomas:
Ralph Thomas was born into musical family in the Windy City of Chicago in 1950. Growing up, Ralph Thomas’ principal instrument was the saxophone, but he was able to play a variety of different instruments. It was no surprise when Ralph Thomas decided to study music at one of Chicago’s most venerable institutions.

In 1969, nineteen year old Ralph Thomas nerved at the Chicago Conservatory of Music which was his home for the next few years. During this period, he became a member of the Chicago A.A.C.M, and studded alongside master musicians Phil Cohran and Richard Muhal Abrams. By then, Ralph Thomas was keen to put what he had learnt into practice.

Soon, Ralph Thomas was recording with blues legend, Howlin’ Wolf and Mighty Joe Young for the Cadet imprint of Chess records. Although this was just the start of his career he was already working with some big names,

Five years layer, this continued when Ralph Thomas moved to LA and continued to work as a session player ‘20th’ Century Fox and Motown. Ralph Thomas recorded with Marvin Gaye, Jermaine Jackson, Smokey Robinson and Rick James. A talented and versatile reedman, Ralph Thomas was never short of offers of work.

As the eighties dawned, Ralph Thomas was keen to embark upon a solo career. While Ralph Thomas enjoyed session work, a solo career was how he saw his career progressing.

By them, he had written Cafe Phillipp, E.S.T. and Spellbound and penned Muscavado and Venice with Lawrence Dixon. Ralph Thomas and Thierry Sharfe write Doloreso which was joined by Joel Ector’s Big Spliff. These seven tracks were played by Ralph Thomas and his babd and became Eastern Standard Time,

Ralph Thomas arranehd and produced Eastern Standard Time, alto, tenor, soprano and baritone saxophone and flute. His rhythm section featured drummer and percussionist Joel Vierset, bassist Joel Ector and guitarist Thierry Sharfe, They were joined by flautist Joann Leauanthal, percussionist Warren Thomas and keyboardist Lawrence Dixon who also played,

One the ‘9th’ of January 1980, Eastern Standard Time was released on Zebra Jazz, but sadly failed to find the audience it deserved. With tracks of the quality of Cafe Phillipp, EST, Spellbound, Muscavado and Venice, Eastern Standard Time where Ralph Thomas and his talented band combined hard bop, modal, posy bop and spiritual jazz. The result was astern Standard Time ambitious and innovative debut album from Ralph Thomas.

It wasn’t until much later that this Ralph Thomas spiritual jazz cult classic started to receive the recognition it deserved, By them, copies of Eastern Standard Time were almost impossible to find, and when a copy came up for sale, the prices were prohibitively high for most jazz fans. They were unable to spend $150 or $200 on a copy of Ralph Thomas ’s oft-overlooked hidden gem Eastern Standard Time.

Forty-eight years later, jazz fans everywhere can enjoy Ralph Thomas’ Eastern Standard Time which has just been released by BBE. Now Eastern Standard Time which is a s spiritual jazz cult classic can l be beard by the audience it so richly deserves and isa reminder of a talented and versatile reedman, Ralph Thomas.

Aurora Josephson

Aurora Josephson is a musician and visual artist who currently resides in Portland, Oregon. Building on the foundation of operatic training and a BA and an MFA in Music Performance from Mills College, she has forged a bold vocal style that is uniquely her own. To unleash the limitless range of sonic possibilities in the voice, Josephson employs a variety of extended and unconventional techniques drawn from the worlds of contemporary composition, improvisation, and rock. She has performed and recorded with Alvin Curran, Gianni Gebbia, Henry Kaiser, Joelle Leandre and William Winant, and musical groups Big City Orchestrae, Flying Luttenbachers, The Molecules, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, T.D. Skatchitband and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

https://www.aurorajosephson.com/

Tim DuRoche
Tim DuRoche is a Portland-based jazz drummer, cultural writer, radio host, and artist-civic ecologist. My work over the last 25 years (live performance, community engagement and conversation, curating, public art and journalism/creative nonfiction) has been part of an evolving fascination with the improvisational weft and warp that occurs between art, entertainment, history, culture, and the public realm.

Some projects I’ve done in recent years include:

Performing jazz and improvisation-based music with local, national and international jazz innovators, dance companies, and at festivals far and wide.

Turning a bridge over the Willamette River into a beautiful singing structure, as part of a large-scale temporary public art project.

Hosting a weekly-radio show spotlighting the evolution and revolutions of jazz since 1959.

Facilitating community conversation in libraries, community centers, churches, performing arts centers, colleges, and artists studios across Oregon

Publishing a book on jazz and culture

Writing extensively on visual culture, jazz and performance, planning, urban history, and cultural policy.

Guiding public conversations around arts and culture, education, civic engagement and democracy, sustainability, and local history.

Since moving to Portland in 2000, I’ve also worked as a freelance journalist and with a number of creative, cultural, and civic organizations and logged in considerable time in grants administration and in investments and advocacy for culture, serving as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Regional Arts and Culture Council, Oregon Arts Commission, and Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, among others. Currently I am the Director of Programs for the World Affairs Council of Oregon.