Thollem Solo by Thollem's Astral Traveling Sessions

This album includes segments from recordings of six different solo acoustic and solo electric concerts in the year leading up to the pandemic. One may ask, “Why this is necessary after 24 albums of me in collaboration with all these wonderful musicians?” I certainly don’t feel it’s necessary to saturate the world with my work. But I do want to
honor the venues and organizations that presented me as a soloist. Each of them have a deep significance to me in their own unique ways as well as to many others, of course. I grew up listening to KFJC, one of the longest running independent music stations in the country. I am certain I wouldn’t be the musician I am today if KFJC didn’t exist. As a teenager, I attended many Monday night concerts at Kuumbwa Jazz Club, which became a tradition for all the great jazz and improvising musicians when
they came through the Bay Area on tour. I heard Pharaoh Sanders, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Toshiko Akiyoshi and many others over the years which left indelible impressions on me. Trinosophes in Detroit is a second home for me. I’ve been collaborating with so many great musicians there for years now, and I have several albums recorded on the stage that I helped build (including my own personal time capsule buried underneath it). The Music Conservatory of Thessaloniki brought me in to lead workshops on free improvisation as well as to give a solo piano concert. I greatly respect their ability to incorporate new ideas into their otherwise very classical
education. It’s rare to see this in musical institutions. I am often invited by the sole professor who jumps hoops to raise enough funds to bring in someone like me, overcoming the recalcitrance of other faculty who are hostile to the ideas that I, and that one professor, believe empower students as young musicians. When I played The Resonance Café, it was actually my first time playing in Montreal. It was good to finally do so! The concert at Molino Excelsior in Valderice, Sicily, was the final concert on a
Sicilian tour that my good friend Lelio Giannetto arranged for me. He also arranged a recording session on my final day in Palermo which was released first in this series way back in November, 2020. He passed away in December from complications of Covid-19.

This is the final release of this year-long series. It’s been an incredible ride and I have so much appreciation for Nathan Cross, Drake Hardin, Tiny Hammers, ACVilla, all the musicians and all the venues, organizations and presenters.

Live, Thollem