The Bliss Of Bliss

Pat Thomas

If the great 13th century Arab-Andalusian Sufi philosopher Mohyuddin Ibn ‘Arabi could time travel to the present to listen to the Oxford-born pianist and composer Pat Thomas, a Sufi himself, the sage might nod knowingly and remind us of his verse: “My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles and convent for Christian monks,/ And a temple for idols and the pilgrim’s Kaaba and the tables of the Torah and the books of the Qu’ran./ I follow the religion of love: whatever way Love’s camels take, that is my religion and my faith.”

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When Thomas says, “I see myself as a traditional player who’s just open to things,” he is marking out the jazz piano, specifically Oscar “O.P.” Peterson’s, as his departure point back when he was growing up in Oxford in the 1970s. From O.P., Thomas began treading a sinuous path that took him to Cecil Taylor (a fan of Pat Thomas’ music), Thelonious Monk, Sun Ra, a journey going back to the master himself, Duke Ellington. Thomas is like the figure who sees lightning in the east but instead ventures west. He didn’t linger too long in the confines of the classical jazz tradition, but travelled far out into regions unimaginable and unknown that some in the genre in which he started off would look askance at him, and his virtuoso sonic experiments.

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When the maestro sits behind a piano, the idioms he is open to are as vast as the beautiful sounds his fingers (and gadgets) conjure. He might decide on an album to explore, say, jazz, reggae, funk, drum and bass, even jungle - every single one of them sounds created in the smithy of the Black experience. Yet every time he sits down to create in whatever mode, there is one totalizing vision at the heart of it all: improvisation. It is as if he is obeying the edict of a savage deity: Thou shalt improvise. “I try to play in as many different contexts as possible, but there’s always going to be an element of improvisation in it for me,” he told The Guardian.

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On the improv offering The Bliss of Bliss, he plays around with primal, otherworldly, and other abstracted soundscapes: the soughs as if a tropical wind is blowing through his piano; the DJ scratches reminiscent of the era of early hip hop; the unit clusters (or structures) first introduced by Cecil Taylor; and the percussiveness invoked in the Barbadian poet Kamau Braithwaite’s lyric: “God is dumb until the drum speaks.” It’s true: Pat Thomas’s piano contains multitudes.

Percy Zvomuya

Credits

Recorded live at Cave12 by Nadan Rojnic March 31st 2024
Mixed & Mastered at KonnektSoundLab by Nicolas Field
Graphic design by Alban Thomas, Alternative
Photos by Nicolas Field
Liner notes by Percy Zvomuya
Produced by www.konnekt.co

Thanks

Cave12, Marion and Sixto for hosting Konnekt and Pat, Nadan for the sound and the recording.