|
In New Brunswick
I resumed my work as a dance class accompanist. Suddenly Dance
became so interesting that I began taking classes, choreographing
dances, and, of course, making music for dance pieces. In 1970
I was able to apply for and accept a position on the faculty
of Temple University’s Dance Department teaching Music
to dancers and a Dance class to Music majors, with other duties.
I was extremely excited about being back in Philadelphia after
six arduous intervening years and I was determined to make my
way quickly into the city’s jazz scene.
 On
the dance faculty with me was German-born dancer Hellmut
Gottschild (thumbnails, left and right) who had been Mary Wigman’s
assistant in Berlin. We became devoted friends and close collaborators.
Hellmut had come to Temple from Germany with members of Group
Motion, a dance company he had formed in Berlin. During my first
year at Temple, he left Group Motion to form a new company.
I was involved in the formation and development of that company,
Zero Moving Dance Company which had an influential and distinguished
life span in Philadelphia. We co-taught a Movement-Compositiom
class in 1971 and until 1986 I played for many of Helmut’s
classes.
 I
was, as I anticipated, active and very happy in the Philadelphia
Jazz scene. I met Pat Martino (thumbnail, left) in 1971,
began working with him, and recorded with him and with Eric
Kloss in 1972. My seven-year Jazz apprenticeship was over. At
Pat’s suggestion I studied with Dennis Sandole whom Pat
correctly believed could help me end my Classical-Jazz conflict.
 Between 1973 and 1984, my good friend and duo-partner guitarist Bobby Rose and I performed and recorded a series of unusual improvised musical projects. Click here to listen to one of the tracks from this series, "Synth Piece." This website will have an essay about my work with Bobby sometime in the near future.
 In 1973 I met saxophonist Marshall Taylor (thumbnail,
right) and for the next six years he was my closest musical
collaborator. The works I wrote for him began with a solo saxophone
piece called Tears of Fire in 1973 and ended with
Three Sacred Songs for Singer, Saxophone, and Harp
in 1979. This period was filled with the fruits of resolution,
and it was Marshall’s ideas and his influence that brought
this about. My studies in 1972 with Dennis Sandole prepared
the way by freeing me from the entrapment of my Avant-Garde
mindset. Dennis convinced me that I would never be free so long
as I expected my work be somehow an evolved expansion of Stockhausen’s
aesthetic/compositional musical personality. Marshall provided
opportunities for me to write for him and to hear performances
of my pieces. I learned a lot from this. He also gave me good
advanced training in how to write well for a performer. And
perhaps most important of all, he applauded and encouraged my
decision to abandon the historicism (the fetish
of chronology) to which I had been in bondage.
 In
1978 I had the idea to try some piano improvisations in
the style of my recent compositions. (Thumbnail is of a drawing
of Ron during this time.) There had always been a hint of this
possibility in my Dance Class playing and so I tapped into that
as well. The result was Wings of the Morning,
and then 17 Solo Piano Improvisations in 1991.
  
(Thumbnails above are of left: Mary Ann and Ron Thomas;
center: David B. Thomas,
Ron Thomas, and Matt Monticchio taken at Matt's wedding reception;
and right, photo of Ron composing.)
In 1979 I moved
out of Philadelphia to Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Throughout
the1980’s my reading and studying intensified, and my interest
in literature came to rival my musical obsessions. I had lots
of time for my reading while riding the train to Philadelphia
in order to stay working at Temple Dance department. I left
Temple in 1986. It had become impossible to earn enough there
to support increasing train fares. My connection to Dance was
over and, although I didn’t know it yet, so was the possibility
of Jazz as a career. The 1990s were productive for me. I am
making progress . . . Two extremely gifted and productive younger
colleagues have incited a continuous renaissance for me both
in my compositions and in my ever-present and much-beloved independent
scholarship and I owe a great deal to them for this renaissance,
David B. Thomas (no
relation) and Matt Monticchio.
Click here to continue reading biography.
>|<
.
|
