One of the Twin Cities music scene's unsung heroes and great minds/characters, jazz innovator Carei Thomas has published a book called "Compositions and Concepts," a mixture of sheet music with stories about all those pieces and his philosophy on composing. MacPhail Center for Music is hosting a special booksigning/meet-up with Thomas tonight (Wednesday) at 7 p.m., 501 2nd St. S., Mpls. The event will feature one of Thomas' many well-known proteges, bass master Adam Linz, performing some of Thomas' works along with the Dakota Combo. The event is free and open to everyone.
"About seven years ago, my wife said to me, 'You're doing all of these things at the Ordway, Walker, all over the place, why not have them all in one place?' " Thomas recounted of the book's origins. He and Joyce then proceeded to gather up about 170 of his compositions dating back to 1959 and compile them. After taking it all to a publisher and seeing the book come together, Thomas said, "It was a beautiful thing. For a guy who was born in 1938 and likes to think he's still hip to the Internet age and all that, a book still has something special about it." He didn't hide how proud he was of what's in the book, either: "If I do something good, I like to say it's good."
Click here for more information on "Compositions and Concepts."
