Free Improvisation Session with Thollem McDonas

Thollem is a perpetually traveling pianist, keyboardist, composer, improviser, singer-songwriter, activist, author and teacher. He’s spent most of his life living on the road throughout North America and Europe. His work is ever-changing, evolving and responding to the times and his experiences, both as a soloist and in collaboration with hundreds of artists across idioms and disciplines. Thollem’s known internationally as an acoustic piano player in the free jazz and post-classical worlds, as the lead vocalist for the Italian agit-punk band Tsigoti, as an electronic keyboardist through a multitude of projects and as the long-term temporary guida of the Sicilian Improvisers Orchestra.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Thollem began playing the piano, composing and improvising as a child, absorbing the sounds of his culturally diverse upbringing. As an adult he has continued to incorporate the breadth of musics he has experienced on his extensive travels. Since 2005, he has played over 1,500 concerts throughout N. America and Europe as a soloist and in collaboration with other musicians, dancers and filmmakers. In that time span, as lead facilitator or co-leader, Thollem has released close to 100 albums on 23 different vanguard labels. A very brief cross section of his many collaborators include William Parker, Pauline Oliveros, Stefano Scodanibbio, Nels Cline, Rob Mazurek, Ravish Momin, Michael Wimberly, Mike Watt and Carmina Escobar. He is the founding director of Estamos Ensemble, a Mexican-American cross border ensemble for musical exchange, the long-term temporary Guida of the Sicilian Improvisers Orchestra and is a published author about art, politics and his travels in NewMusic Box, The Anthology of Essays On Deep Listening, Full Moon Magazine (Prague) and First American Art Magazine.

I was signing up the workshop mainly for doing something productive with my friend Noisy Chen so I did not search Thollem McDonas’s background so I did not notice he is very technical key musician TAT. I was feeling regretful and foolish when I chose keyboard to improvise at the ‘last performance’–almost sweating. Thollem let me notice what is being humble master…

I think it is a very practical workshop with Thollem. We had musicians on guitar, saxophone, voice, and a nosy synth. I think it is a really nice combination and the whole environment is so chill. No one is really showing off. It is really pretty and meditating… I think what I had learned from improvisation was we had to practice dual and trio beforehand. What’s more, it would be considerable to ensure yourself could lesson to everyone’s voice. If not, it should be someone is too loud, or someone is too quiet.

Thollem’s piano style was a mixture of jazz and classical. He taught me some techniques about how to freestyle: one hand one black keys, and one hand one white keys… Focus on the strength of notes… We had like 3 hours for practicing and I believed everyone was quite tired at that stage. And we were performing in the blackbox then…

Thanks to LCC Sundarts: https://www.instagram.com/p/CsqRbKsInZ8/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==