THE NEW RELEASE! Top improvisers Fred Tompkins, Greg Mills and Glen ‘Papa’ Wright Jr. perform here, while Paul DeMarinis, Maryse Carlin, Dana Hotle, Johanna Ballou and Kyle Honeycutt show their expertise at interpreting Tompkins’s notated works.
Top St. Louis improvisers join Fred Tompkins, and three previously unreleased recordings with John Clark, Chuck Loeb, Harvie Swartz and others are also featured.
The Fred Tompkins Poetry & Music Ensemble performs improvised and composed music to poetry by E.E. Cummings, Emily Dickinson and Michael Castro, featuring Dave Black, Debby Lennon and drummer - Charlie Dent.
This album of original compositions focuses on Tompkins's skill at developing multi-sectional extended works, yet the album also includes several 'live' improvised performances recorded at the Tavern of Fine Arts in St. Louis, MO.
Fred Tompkins's flute playing is featured here, in a broad range of ensembles and musical styles, joined by such top performers as Jim Hegarty - piano; Charlie Dent - drums; Dave Cheli - clarinet & tenor saxophone; Boyd F Becker-Nunley - steel pan.
Paul DeMarinis - soprano saxophone; Dave Black - guitar and other St. Louis musicians shine on this album of new electronic and acoustic pieces.
Fred Tompkins and Greg Mills experiment with a wide range of textures, forms and emotions on this album of free improvisation.
Eight new jazz works and one 3 movement free improv. with pianist Greg Mills display Tompkins’s broad skill at both composition and flute performance.
Many talented St. Louis and New York musicians take part in this project of vocal music, set to the poetry of Emily Dickinson.
Extended instrumental works from his 1970s and '80s style of jazz/classical fusion, featuring Chuck Loeb, Anthony Jackson, Billy Mintz and many more "The major works on this release are a joy!" - DownBeat
Music from the 1990s, a productive period of vocal and instrumental works, featuring vocalists - Debby Lennon and Ralph Butler with Gary Sykes - drums.
Elvin Jones , David Liebman and many more greats perform a vast and eclectic repertoire of early instrumental compositions.