Fred Tompkins (born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, 1943) is an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

flautist The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

, best known for his work as a composer of

third stream Third stream is a music genre that is a fusion of jazz and classical music. The term was coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller in a lecture at Brandeis University. There are many ways to define third-stream music. It could refer to a group ...

music.

Early life

Tompkins played in his native Missouri for several years after high school and attended the St. Louis Institute of Music starting in 1964, pairing it with summer courses at

Berklee College Berklee College of Music () is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level c ...

and the Aspen Music School. During this period he received instruction from Lee Humphreys, Trudy Kane, Graham Hollobon,

Harold Bennett Harold Frank Bennett (17 November 1898 – 11 September 1981) was an English actor, active in stage, television and film best remembered for being in sitcoms written and produced by David Croft, having played 'Young Mr. Grace' in the 1970s Bri ...

, Manus Sasonkin,

Lukas Foss Lukas Foss (August 15, 1922 – February 1, 2009) was a German-American composer, pianist, and conductor. Career Born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922, Foss was soon recognized as a child prodigy. He began piano and theory lessons with J ...

, and

Vincent Persichetti Vincent Ludwig Persichetti (June 6, 1915 – August 14, 1987) was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, he was known for his integration of various new ideas in musical composition into his own work ...

. Early influences on his study and playing were

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...

Modern Jazz Quartet The Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) was a jazz combo established in 1952 that played music influenced by classical music, classical, cool jazz, blues and bebop. The Quartet consisted of John Lewis (pianist), John Lewis (piano), Milt Jackson (vibraphon ...

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith ( ; ; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German and American composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advo ...

and

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

Jazz career

1960s

In 1967 he changed his base of operations to New York City and developed an important relationship with jazz drummer

Elvin Jones Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era. Most famously a member of John Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such albums as ''My Fa ...

, with whom he would make recordings which also featured

Joe Farrell Joseph Carl Firrantello (December 16, 1937 – January 10, 1986), known as Joe Farrell, was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who primarily performed as a saxophonist and flutist. He is best known for a series of albums under his own name o ...

, Jimmy Owens and other musicians. His career was put on hold, however, when he was

conscripted Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it contin ...

in 1968. He was, however, able to find time to compose during this period, and it was during this time that his composition "Yes" found its way on to Elvin's LP ''Polycurrents''.

1970s

After three years of service, he returned to New York and continued to compose, perform and record. It was during this time that he became associated with the New Music Circle and premiered his composition "Four Lines" for flute, oboe, string bass and drums. His first LP "The Compositions of Fred Tompkins" showed him firmly rooted in third Stream composition, and featured the playing of Jones, Farrell, Owens,

Wilbur Little Wilbur "Doc" Little (March 5, 1928 – May 4, 1987) was an American jazz bassist known for playing hard bop and post-bop. Little originally played piano, but switched to double bass after serving in the military. In 1949 he moved to Washington, ...

, and Richard Davis. His next LP "Somesville", again featured challenging compositions, this time played by Jones,

Lenny White Leonard White III (born December 19, 1949) is an American jazz fusion drummer who was a member of the band Return to Forever led by Chick Corea in the 1970s. White has been called "one of the founding fathers of jazz fusion". White has won thre ...

Gene Perla Gene Perla (born March 1, 1940) is an American jazz bassist. Career At the Berklee School of Music and the Boston Conservatory Perla concentrated on piano before moving to double bass. In 1969 he spent one year as a member of the Woody Herman Or ...

Buster Williams Charles Anthony "Buster" Williams (born April 17, 1942) is an American jazz bassist. Williams is known for his membership in pianist Herbie Hancock's early 1970s group, as well as working with guitarist Larry Coryell, the Thelonious Monk reperto ...

David Liebman David Liebman (born September 4, 1946) is an American saxophonist, flautist and jazz educator. He is known for his innovative lines and use of atonality. He was a frequent collaborator with pianist Richie Beirach. In June 2010, he received a ...

and Steve Grossman. Tompkins' pieces are fully notated with respect to notes, dynamics and articulation, but the players take a little freedom, especially the

rhythm section A rhythm section is a group of musicians within a music ensemble or band that provides the underlying rhythm, harmony and pulse of the accompaniment, providing a rhythmic and harmonic reference and "beat" for the rest of the band. The rhythm ...

when there is one, to complement and propel the

swing jazz Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement ...

feeling.

1980s–present

The 1980s saw Tompkins setting music to the poetry of

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...

and

E. E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), commonly known as e e cummings or E. E. Cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. During World War I, he worked as an ambulance driver and was ...

( Lucy Shelton premiered his "Three Poems to E. E. Cummings" in a “live” radio broadcast on

WBAI-FM WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic music ...

radio in New York City), and in the 1990s he composed music to pieces by

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( ; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordsworth ...

and St. Louis poet Michael Castro. The early 1980s also saw the premier of pieces Tompkins composed for the

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

player John Clark, which also incorporated the use of

string synthesizer A string synthesizer or string machine is a synthesizer designed to make sounds similar to those of a string section. Dedicated string synthesizers occupied a specific musical instrument niche between electronic organs and general-purpose synthes ...

arco bass The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than, a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar an ...

, pizzicato bass and drums. In 1989, the world premiere of his piece "Duet Melody" was held at the Bar Harbor Festival and was performed by David Bilger and his wife Dorinne Bilger. Tompkins has since also worked with Paul DeMarinis,

Chuck Loeb Charles Samuel "Chuck" Loeb (December 7, 1955 – July 31, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist and a member of the groups Steps Ahead, Metro and Fourplay. Early years and education Loeb was born in Nyack, New York, near New York City. At ...

Frank Tusa Frank Tusa (born April 1, 1947) is an American jazz double-bassist, composer, educator. Tusa played guitar before switching to bass at age ten. He worked in a Broadway pit orchestra and then played while serving in the Army. Tusa worked with Paul ...

, Lawrence Feldman,

Noah Young Noah Young, Jr. (February 2, 1887 – April 18, 1958) was a champion weightlifter and actor. Biography Young was born in Cañon City, Colorado. His father, Noah Young, was a foreman of the Glenrock coal mine who later became a coal mine i ...

, Bryant Hayes, Rick Cutler, Norman Carey, Anthony Jackson and many others. In 1990, he returned to St. Louis and continues to compose, perform (most notably with Debby Lennon, Ralph Butler,

Gary Sykes Gary Sykes (born 13 February 1984) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2006 to 2016. He held the British super-featherweight title twice between 2010 and 2014, and challenged for the Commonwealth super-featherweight and lig ...

and

Charlie Dent Charles Wieder Dent (born May 24, 1960) is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives for from 2005 to 2018. Born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Dent worked in a variety of occupation ...

, and Dave Black), announce on radio and participate on the board of the New Music Circle. His CD ''There is a Zone'' is a compilation of all his recorded music to the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

Critical reviews

*“Outstanding in the first half of the program was Fred Tompkins’ “Four Lines”. Especially fine was the improvisatory drum part played by the great jazz drummer, Elvin Jones.” *"The results f the LP ''Cécile''are pieces — harmonically and tonally varied and melodically strong — which make use of woodwind sounds and have a firm underpinning of often driving piano lines and swinging but rhythmically broken bass and drum lines." — J. De Muth, ''Down Beat Magazine''

Partial Discography

;As leader: *''The Compositions of Fred Tompkins'' (1973, Festival 9001) *''Somesville'' (1975, Festival 9002) *''Cécile'' (1978, FKT 103) *''St. Louis Music'' (1999, The Orchard) *''Fanfare 8'' (The Early Works of Fred Tompkins - compilation) (2000, The Orchard) *''Freedom Ring'' (2001) *''Cécile'' (2003, 2nd edition - compilation) *''There Is A Zone'' (2004) *''Curve Extended'' (2006, The Orchard)''All Music Guide to Jazz'' (2010 Edition). ;As sideman with

: *''

Poly-Currents ''Poly-Currents'' is an album by American jazz drummer Elvin Jones recorded in 1969 and released on the Blue Note label.Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

)

External links

* AllMusic entr

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tompkins, Fred Third stream musicians 1943 births American male musicians American jazz composers American male jazz composers American flautists St. Louis Institute of Music alumni Living people