Pat Thomas (pianist)

Thomas was born in Oxford and began playing jazz piano at age 16 driven by a fascination for Liberace's instruments.^[1][2] His first album as sole leader was New Jazz Jungle: Remembering, which was released in 1997.^[1] He received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists in 2014.^[3] Several of his recordings were released in 2019: "from the ruminative post-bop piano trio heard on BleySchool, the free improv of the collective trio Shifa, an exploratory trio with reedist John Butcher and drummer Ståle Liavik Solberg on Fictional Souvenirs and a stunning live solo piano set of Duke Ellington music available digitally from London's Cafe Oto".^[3]

Thomas is part of the band أحمد [ahmed], a quartet with Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip, and Seymour Wright inspired by the music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik. To date, they have released seven albums, all based on live recordings in Europe. New Jazz Imagination was released by Umlaut in 2017 and was followed by Super Majnoon (East Meets West).^[3]Their 2026 album, play Monk, diverts from their formula, subjecting Thelonious Monk tunes to their deconstructive approach.

Two Thomas albums were released in 2024: the solo piano The Solar Model of Ibn Al-Shatir (Otoroku) and the electronics-based This Is Trick Step (577).^[1]

Thomas came to the U.S. 2025 and played shows in Chicago, Illinois (with Mariam Rezaei at the Renaissance Society) and Knoxville, Tennessee (with أحمد [ahmed] at Big Ears).^[4][5]