With their unique blend of digeridoos, trumpets, guitars, Native American flutes, and African percussion, Thom Jayne and the Nomads are a hard-to-categorize fusion of world music, jazz, and celtic influences. Thom Jayne’s first release, The Forgotten Conquest, has received award-winning recognition in the John Lennon Songwriters Contest and won the 2002 Jammie Award / World Music Category (also available at CDBaby). The new release of “Road Trip,” defines the band’s signature acoustic sound, at times spiritual and ethereal, at times upbeat and hard-driving.
"No longer can the seemingly eccentric styles of jazz be dismissed as mere caprice, for its practitioners have succeeded in realizing their own unique and magnetic presence...Thom Jayne and the Unusual Suspects [now the Nomads], aptly titled, are poster children for this form of jazz fusion. Not only does this award-winning group employ such unorthodox instruments as the didgeridoo and Native American flute, but with the help of African percussion as well, MSU professor Thom Jayne fashions a fascinating blend of flamenco, Latin Jazz, and Celtic musical traditions" -- Jonas Greenberg, host of the Jazz Spectrum, The Impact 88.9 FM, Lansing, Michigan.
The Nomads are:
Rich Illman - trumpet and percussion
Jon Weber - percussion and mbira (thumb piano)
Thom Jayne - guitar and digeridoo
Heather Kulaga - bass
Greg Howe - guitar
Kelly Pond - violin and vocals
Greg Sauceda - drums
For a recent review of Thom Jayne and the Nomads in the Lansing City Pulse by Lawrence Cosentino, see:
http://archives.lansingcitypulse.com/060104/music/index2.asp
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