Biography – Pete Thomas

Biog

Someone ought to erect a monument to Pete Thomas for services to rock music
– MUSIC Magazine

Quite a remarkable statement on its own, but the fact that the person honoured in this way is not a guitar hero but a college trained sax player and composer is even more remarkable. Pete has subesquently been paid a further compliment by Virgin Vision when they asked him to make a saxophone instruction video for worldwide release.

But then Pete Thomas doesn’t mess around. One of his first professional gigs was with Fats Domino. Pete is probably one of the first British musicians to feature with this 11 piece New Orleans band both as a soloist and as a member of the legendary horn section.

It was this connection that led to a musical partnership with Joe Jackson as co-arranger and saxophonist on records and world tours. This partnership was resumed on Joe Jackson’s film score and soundtrack album for Francis Ford Coppola’s movie Tucker for which Pete features as a soloist.

More recently he was commissioned by Island/Polygram to produce the live recording and mixing of PJ Harvey’s Forum concert for MTV and video documentary Reeling as well as co-producing with her the tribute to Kurt Weill: Ballad Of The Soldier’s Wife for Sony Classical.

Not satisfied with simply helping others to create great music he has recently been involved in composition and production himself with some highly acclaimed work which has led him into the demanding world of TV films, commercials and record production. His successes in this area include composing music for Michael Caine’s feature film Blue Ice (commissioned source music), American Kick Boxer II (full score), The Late Show: Movies From Hell– BBC2, Signals – Channel 4, Best – The Movie and a series of stylish, unique and highly musical TV ads for Tennent’s, Dry Blackthorn, Sainsbury’s, Orangina, Holsten Pils, Playstation, Pantene and many more.

His music for the Tennent’s ad was used as the soundtrack to the film Night in the Naked City (directed by Amanda Roberts)

When he’s not touring or working as a composer he’s much in demand as a multi-horn session player and arranger. He works with producers such as Adamski, Flood, Rod Argent, Pete Wingfield, Gus Dudgeon, Robin Millar, Stuart Colman, and Marshall Jefferson on projects for artists including PJ Harvey, R.E.M., Cliff Richard, Elton John, Richard Thompson, Robert Cray, Keziah Jones and Kim Wilde.

As well as his Rock and Pop music credits Pete is well respected as a jazz musician. One time member of award winning fusion band Swift he has also featured with the Thad Jones Orchestra, Loose Tubes, Slim Gaillard, Jimmy Witherspoon, Jon Hendricks and Laverne Baker.

Pete Thomas is a consummate musician and an uninhibited performer, totally at ease in any musical idiom. He deals equally effortlessly with conducting an orchestra or programming for a modern pop session. He’s totally at one with the synthesizers, samplers, computers and midi controllers demanded by and responsible for today’s commercial music as well as breaking new ground by pioneering the saxophone-to-MIDI interface.

– International Musician

Of course this isn’t the whole story.
To learn more about Pete Thomas is easy:

Just listen to the music

Press

Performance & Recording:

This latest release evokes the sleazy world of 1940s basement bars and demonstrates how the sax remains a truly emotional instrument. Discarding the flurry of of notes approach, Pete makes each note count and every blast tells a story. The title track sets the tone with its steamy lines, while the ballad Love Them is sumptuously refined. This is a superb package for any aspiring player as well as fans of this timeless style

– Keith Ames – (Musician Magazine)

Pete Thomas delivers an unabashed , R & B tinged love letter…this is meat and potatoes, served with a hot sauce.

– Clive Davis (Sunday Times review of Mr Lucky)

Storming sax from top exponent Pete, who benefits both from having the talent to compose a string of blistering numbers and the opportunity to call upon a crack team of supporting musicians…Riveting across all 16 tracks.
– Keith Ames – (Musician Magazine)

Thomas plays an impressive growling saxophone that has a humourous, teasing air of menace.
– Mary Ellison (Jazz Express)

Pete Thomas, saxophonist sublime…Thomas’s saxophone playing is something special.
– Richard Mazda (New Hi Fi Sound)

His first album gives only a brief idea of what he can do but jazz purists cannot sneer at him.You don’t have to look constipated to take a good solo.
– Jack Massarik (The Wire)

Thomas is a demonic player, abrasive and articulate.
– Russell Lack (The Wire)

Pete Thomas is indisputably an accomplished saxophone player and this is beautifully exemplified on the echoey, haunting Raptures.
– Karen Faux (Music Week)

It would be difficult to find a musician more unpretentious and unaffected than Pete Thomas.
– Simon Mills (Girl About Town)

Pete Thomas’s dirty sax rules…
– Lloyd Bradley (Q Magazine)

Someone ought to erect a monument to Pete Thomas for services to rock music. (Before you rave about **** check this guy out for yourself).
Music Magazine

Only when Pete Thomas arrives on stage to blow a few screaming choruses through a tenor which is large enough on him to scuff his shoes do you feel that a kindred spirit may be in the building.
– LaurieTaylor (NewSociety)

(Review of Slim Gaillard at Ronnie Scotts

Performance Credits

Recording Sessions

Joe Jackson – Jumping Jive album
Joe Jackson – Tucker film soundtrack (A&M)
R.E.M. – Fables Of The Reconstruction (IRS)
Dave Stewart – Greetings From The Gutter
Richard Thompson – Hand of Kindness & Across a Crowded Room (Hannibal)
Kim Wilde – Rockin Around the Christmas Tree
Cliff Richard and the Young Ones – Living Doll
Proclaimers – Hit The Highway (Chrysalis)
Elton John – Ice On Fire – (Rocket)
Father Father – Album (GoDiscs)
Dana Gillespie (3 Albums)
Labi Siffri – album (China)
Keziah Jones – Bluefunk is a Fact (Virgin)
Jimmy Witherspoon – album (Indigo)
Vic Goddard – album (Rough Trade)
Monochrome Set -album
Barrington Levy – single
Ruth Rogers Wright Don’t Compromise

TV and Film Sessions

Tucker – Orchestra leader and soloist (Francis Ford Coppola/George Lucas)
Showgirls (Dave Stewart soundtrack)
London’s Burning (LWT)
Last Pit In The Rhonda Valley – soloist (BBC)
Say Hello To The Real Dr. Snide – soloist (C4)
Moondial (BBC)
Sounds Of Surprise – soloist (C4)
Bad Girl (BBC)
Coded Hostile – soloist (Granada)
Bottom (BBC)

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Live

Jon Hendricks 1972
Neil Sedaka 1973
Rolf Harris 1974
Three Degrees 1974
Rod Argent 1977 UK Tour
Bill Haley 1977 European Tour
Joe Jackson 1981 U.S. Tour
Richard Thompson 1983 U.S. Tour
Fats Domino 1991 European Tour
Ben Waters
Loose Tubes 1991
Jimmy Witherspoon 1992 UK Tour

TV Appearances

Sting (Later With Jools Holland)
Paul Young
Joe Jackson (Old Grey Whistle Test)
Bill Haley (Royal Variey Show)
Robert Cray
Richard Thompson (Old Grey Whistle Test)
The Bluebells
Jimmy Witherspoon
Dina Carroll
Dana Gillespie (Pebble Mill at One)

Composing Credits

Composition (TV/Film)

Blue Ice- commissioned source music
Best (the Movie) – commissioned source music
American Kick Boxer II – score
Movies From Hell (BBC2)
Another Side Of London (Thames)
Signals (Channel 4)
The Full Treatment (Thames)
S & M (Hat Trick)
Bottom (BBC video)
Follow The Money -The Fix (BBC2)
Flavours Of The Orient (Granada)
Barred Love (Channel 4)
Blooming Youth (Channel 4)
Sex Crime Investigators (Channel 4)
Meet The Foxes (Channel 4)
How Does Your Garden Grow? (BBC2)
Monkey Business (Meridian)
Pier On Film 1998 (Meridian)
Costa Del Nosh (Carlton Network)

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Commercials (Composition)

How Stuff Works
Wrigleys Airwaves
Mentos
First Line Mobile
Playstation: Crocs 2
Scottish Power
Pantene Conditioner
Dry Blackthorn Cider
Dewars Whiskey
Vidal Sassoon Wash And Go
Tennents Pilsner
Armorall
Ambrosia Creamed Rice
Thomas’s Treats
Holsten Pils
Orangina
Sunsilk
Sainsbury’s
Daily Telegraph
Bella Pasta

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Radio (Music Trails)

Music Live 95 – BBC Radio 1,2,3 & 4
Jazz FM
London Radio Services (worldwide sig themes and trails)

Featured Production Music

Top Gear (BBC)
Instrument Amnesty (BBC Promo)
The Cosby Show
Eurotrash (Rapido TV)
Barry Norman’s Film Night (Sky Premier)
The Tottenham Ayatollah (Channel 4)
Pier On Film (Meridian)
Under The Moon (Channel 4)
Home Front (BBC)
Cannes Film Festival(BBC)
The Lying Game (Torch Productions)
Monkey Business (Meridian)
BBC1 Christmas promo music trails
Sky TV promo trails

For full production music listings see JazzyProductionMusic.com

Production Credits

Tracks/Albums

PJ Harvey – Reeling (Polygram/MTV)
PJ Harvey – September Song (Kurt Weill Tribute – Sony Classical)
Ray Gelato Giants Of Jive (Ace Records/Nuova Durium)
Ruth Allen – The Ruth Allen Songbook (Astor Records)
Don’t Stop The Groove – (JVC Victor, Japan)
The Saint Theme Remix (Telstar Records)
The Vulcans – Diddle I Di Di (Mermaid Records)
Big Jay McNeely/Dana Gillespie – Cherry Pie

MD/Arranging

PJ Harvey (To Bring You My Love – Island) String arrangements
Gene (Olympian – Costermonger/Polygram) String Arrangements
Gerideau/Adamski (L’Attitude) String Arrangements
Richard Berry UK Tour and Radio 1 John Peel session
The Spaniels – The Teenagers – Laverne Baker – Johnny Allen – Wembley show
Ray Gelato Giants Of Jive – Ace Records/Nuova Durium
Ruth Allen – Astor Records

Betty Page Private Girl

Betty Page

Private Girl

Tracks Apollo & Coolstuff (composed and produced by Pete Thomas) featured on the CD Betty Page Private Girl

Boogaloo 3

Dance Floor Jazz

CHAPPEL library catalogue are the product of the creme de la creme of the British dancefloor jazz scene and have licensed and Pete Thomas’s Funky Skunk

Pure Gold

– Cuban & South American Salsa Rhythms, Vol. 3

Pete’s track Mambo Extremo

The Vulcans

– Diddle-I-Di-Di

Now a collectors item!

September Songs

PJ Harvey

Ballad of the Soldier’s Wife

– co-production with PJ Harvey and Mike Delanien

Island/Polygram

reeling

PJ Harvey

Reeling — live concert music production

Island/Polygram

Eliza Emery

Release date 4 Sept 2006. Indian Girl & Sorrow produced by Pete Thomas

Clients

Pete Thomas Promo Videos

All of these videos are produced by Pete Thomas. All music is composed by Pete Thomas except Harlem Nocturne which is covered under our MCPS Limited Online Exploitation Licence.

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Studio

studio

The Studio

Pete’s Studio is located in deepest Hampshire and has a warm and friendly atmoshere. The live room is a beautiful wooden floored, high ceiling room with excellent acoustics and a huge range of instruments including most of saxophone family, acoustic piano, several guitars, Fender bass, lots of percussion and a theremin.

Hardware

Apple iMac 3.4 GHz i7, JBL LSR4328 Monitors, Apogee Ensemble, AEA TRP Pre-amp, IVL Pitchrider 4000, Director’s Cut video digitiser.

Software

Apple Logic Pro X, Final Cut Pro X, PSP (Mixpack, Stereopack & Vintage Warmer), Ambience SE, Sonalksis compressors and EQ, Celemony Melodyne

Apple Logic Pro is an industry standard music production and composition software application. It combines digital audio recording with MIDI sequencing and music notation (score writing).

Virtual Instruments

Vienna Instruments Ensemble, Post Pianos (Old Lady, Emperor, Bosendorfer, Yamaha C7), Garritan Personal Orchestra, East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra.