Amos Leon Thomas Jr. (October 4, 1937 – May 8, 1999), known professionally as Leon Thomas, was 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 ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

vocalist, born in East St. Louis, Illinois, and known for his bellowing glottal-stop style of

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

singing in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Life and career

Leon Thomas was born Amos Thomas, Jr. on October 4, 1937, in East St. Louis, Illinois. He studied music at

Tennessee State University Tennessee State University (Tennessee State, Tenn State, or TSU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, it is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennes ...

. At the time of his studies, he had begun a singing career as a guest vocalist for the jazz bands of percussionist

Armando Peraza Armando Peraza (May 30, 1924 – April 14, 2014) was a Cuban Latin jazz percussionist and a member of the rock band Santana. Peraza played congas, bongos, and timbales. Biography Early life Born in Lawton Batista, Havana, Cuba in 1924 (althou ...

, saxophonist Jimmy Forrest, and guitarist

Grant Green Grant Green (June 6, 1935 – January 31, 1979) was an American jazz guitarist and composer. Green has been called one of the "most sampled guitarists." Biography Grant Green was born on June 6, 1935, in St. Louis, Missouri, to John and ...

. His musical development at this time was shaped in part by seeing saxophonist

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 ...

perform in trumpeter

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

's sextet during the late 1950s. Thomas moved to New York City in 1959, singing at the

Apollo Theater The Apollo Theater (formerly the Hurtig & Seamon's New Theatre; also Apollo Theatre or 125th Street Apollo Theatre) is a multi-use Theater (structure), theater at 253 125th Street (Manhattan), West 125th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of U ...

as a vocalist for acts such as jazz ensemble The Jazz Messengers and singer Dakota Staton. In 1961, he joined the

Count Basie Orchestra The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16- to 18-piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 19 ...

but soon left after being

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 ...

into the army. Thomas was discharged from the army in the late 1960s and resumed his music career, first working with avant-garde jazz saxophonist

Pharoah Sanders Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", San ...

. In 1969, he released his first solo album for

Bob Thiele Robert "Bob" Thiele (July 27, 1922 – January 30, 1996) was an American record producer who worked on numerous classic jazz albums and record labels. Early life and career Bob Thiele was born in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York, United Sta ...

Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' () is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the sea forever. The myths and ghost stories are likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dutch East India C ...

label. Thomas became best known for his work with Sanders, particularly the 1969 song "The Creator Has a Master Plan" from Sanders' ''

Karma Karma (, from , ; ) is an ancient Indian concept that refers to an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively called ...

'' album. Thomas's most distinctive device was that he often broke out into

yodeling Yodeling (also jodeling) is a form of singing which involves repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or "chest voice") and the high-pitch head register or falsetto. The English word ''yodel'' is derived from t ...

in the middle of a vocal. This style has influenced singers James Moody,

Tim Buckley Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American musician. He began his career based in folk rock, but subsequently experimented with genres such as psychedelia, jazz, the avant-garde, and funk paired with his ...

and

Bobby McFerrin Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter, and conductor (music), conductor. His Vocal pedagogy, vocal techniques include singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in Pitch (music), pitch—fo ...

. He said in an interview that he developed this style after he fell and broke his teeth before an important show. Some of the vocal style is classified as 'jive singing'. (Ref: Leon Thomas Blues Band album). Thomas saw music as a means of

social commentary Social commentary is the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary on social, cultural, political, or economic issues in a society. This is often done with the idea of implementing or promoting change by informing the general populace ab ...

during this period, saying, "You just have to be more than an entertainer. How the blazes can you ignore what is happening?" Through the 1970s, Thomas recorded a series of critically acclaimed records for Flying Dutchman, and performed with the bands of trumpeter

Freddie Hubbard Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (April 7, 1938 – December 29, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives fo ...

and guitarist

Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...

, touring as a member of the

Santana Santana may refer to: Transportation * Volkswagen Santana, an automobile * Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles * Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer * Sailboat designs by W. D. Schock Corp ** Santana 20 ** Santan ...

band in 1973. He later appeared on recordings with saxophonist Gary Bartz and singer Jeri Brown. In the mid-1970s, he adopted "Leon" as his middle name. During the 1990s, Thomas's recordings of spiritually- and African-influenced

soul jazz Soul jazz or funky jazz is a subgenre of jazz that incorporates strong influences from hard bop, blues, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues. Soul jazz is often characterized by organ trios featuring the Hammond organ and small combos including sa ...

resurfaced among record collectors and club deejays, becoming known as "kosmigroov" music. During the late 90's, Thomas toured the US and Europe with a band named Blueswing, led by Music Director/Guitarist Kevin McNeal, Billy Kaye on Drums, Ian McDonald/piano and Hilliard Greene/stick double bass. On May 8, 1999, Thomas died of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...

, resulting from

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

, at a

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

hospital near his home.

Appraisal

Thomas has been called the "John Coltrane of jazz vocalists". According to music essayist and yodel expert Bart Plantenga, he combined

scat singing Originating in vocal jazz, scat singing or scatting is vocal Musical improvisation, improvisation with Non-lexical vocables in music, wordless vocables, Pseudoword#Nonsense syllables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. In scat singing, t ...

, vocalese techniques from African tradition, and a unique approach to yodeling, "performing ritualistic vocals infused by spiritual quests,

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...

, and

Pygmy In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a po ...

yodeling techniques." Thomas's extension of the anthropological "verbal energy"—"whenever his Pygmy-yodel-scat erupted from the opening at the top of his larynx"—returns the listener back to "Pygmy yodeling not only via

ethnomusicological Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

investigation but via ur-soul, or

back-to-Africa The back-to-Africa movement was a political movement in the 19th and 20th centuries advocating for a return of the descendants of African American slaves to Sub-Saharan Africa in the African continent. The small number of freed slaves who did ...

spiritual pilgrimage", Plantenga said. According to Ben Ratliff of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', Thomas had begun his career "as a straight blues-jazz singer" with a "stout tenor voice", but by the mid-1960s, he "had begun to spend time with young jazz musicians who were looking to Africa, the East and meditation for musical material … Thomas developed his ululating singing style, which has been compared to African pygmy and American Indian singing techniques and which he later called 'soularphone.' He believed that his ancestors had given him his elastic throat articulation, he said, and henceforth always used it."

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

wrote of the significance behind Thomas's vocal abilities in '' Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies'' (1981):

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

critic Thom Jurek, impressed especially by ''The Leon Thomas Album'' (1970), was mystified by "why this guy wasn't huge", while Tom Hull said, "In a simpler time, he would have been a classic

blues shouter A blues shouter is a blues singer, capable of singing unamplified with a band. Notable blues shouters include: *Big Maybelle *Big Mama Thornton *Piney Brown *Walter Brown (singer), Walter Brown, of the Jay McShann orchestra *Beulah Bryant *H-Bomb F ...

Discography

As leader

* '' Spirits Known and Unknown'' (

, 1969) * '' The Leon Thomas Album'' (Flying Dutchman, 1970) * '' Leon Thomas in Berlin'' (Flying Dutchman, 1971) with

Oliver Nelson Oliver Edward Nelson (June 4, 1932 – October 28, 1975) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. His 1961 Impulse! album '' The Blues and the Abstract Truth'' (1961) is regarded as one of the most signi ...

* '' Gold Sunrise on Magic Mountain'' ( Mega, 1971) * '' Blues and the Soulful Truth'' (Flying Dutchman, 1972) * '' Full Circle'' (Flying Dutchman, 1973) * '' Precious Energy'' ( Mapleshade, 1990) with Gary Bartz

As sideman

With

* ''

'' ( Impulse!, 1969) * '' Jewels of Thought'' (Impulse!, 1969) * '' Izipho Zam (My Gifts)'' ( Strata-East, 1973) * '' Shukuru'' (

Theresa Teresa (also Theresa, Therese; ) is a feminine given name. It originates in the Iberian Peninsula in late antiquity. Its derivation is uncertain, it may be derived from Classical Greek, Greek θερίζω (''therízō'') "to harvest or rea ...

, 1985) * '' Oh Lord, Let Me Do No Wrong'' (Doctor Jazz, 1987) With

* ''

Welcome A welcome is a kind of greeting designed to introduce a person to a new place or situation, and to make them feel at ease. The term can similarly be used to describe the feeling of being accepted on the part of the new person. Overview In ...

'' ( Columbia, 1973) * '' Lotus'' (Columbia, 1991) With others *

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

, '' Louis Armstrong and His Friends'' (Flying Dutchman/Amsterdam, 1970) *

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

, '' Pop Goes the Basie'' (

Reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any re ...

, 1965) * Jeri Brown, ''Zaius'' (Justin Time, 1998) *

Louis Hayes Louis Hayes (born May 31, 1937) is an American jazz drummer and band leader. He was with McCoy Tyner's trio for more than three years. Since 1989 he has led his own band, and together with Vincent Herring formed the Cannonball Legacy Band. He i ...

, '' Variety Is the Spice'' (Gryphon, 1979) *

Johnny Hodges Johnny Hodges (July 25, 1907 – May 11, 1970) was an American alto saxophone, alto saxophonist, best known for solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years. Hodges was also featured on sop ...

, ''

3 Shades of Blue ''3 Shades of Blue'' is the final album recorded as leader by American jazz saxophonist Johnny Hodges featuring performances recorded in 1970 with vocalist Leon Thomas and composer/arranger Oliver Nelson and first released on the Flying Dutchman ...

'' (Flying Dutchman, 1970) with Oliver Nelson *

Dave 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 ...

, '' Light'n Up, Please!'' (

Horizon The horizon is the apparent curve that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This curve divides all viewing directions based on whethe ...

/A&M, 1977) *

Archie Shepp Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937) is an American jazz saxophonist, educator and playwright who since the 1960s has played a central part in the development of avant-garde jazz. Biography Early life Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but ...

, '' Kwanza'' (Impulse!, 1974) * Malachi Thompson, '' Spirit'' (Delmark, 1983) *

Cedar Walton Cedar Anthony Walton Jr. (January 17, 1934 – August 19, 2013) was an American hard bop jazz pianist. He came to prominence as a member of drummer Art Blakey's band, The Jazz Messengers, before establishing a long career as a bandleader and c ...

, '' Soundscapes'' (Columbia, 1980)

References

Bibliography *

External links

Leon Thomas biography by Scott Yanow, discography and album reviews, credits & releases
at

*
Leon Thomas
on JazzSupreme {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Leon 1937 births 1999 deaths American jazz singers Tennessee State University alumni Singers from Illinois Santana (band) members Flying Dutchman Records artists 20th-century African-American male singers 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singers People from East St. Louis, Illinois Jazz musicians from Illinois American yodelers