Trio Update

THE BITCOIN SONG - OHIO TOAST SKA MAN - WRITTEN AND PLAYED BY ALED THOMAS - HAS NOW HAD 10000+ DOWNLOADS - THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!! 

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Thomas revels in being every man. He's put upon, weary, and funny. If he traded in his piano bench for a sit-com, he would play the acerbic office mate. If he had to be compared to another songwriter, Randy Newman might be a good choice. Both are adept at capturing the spirit of a particular moment in time"   JazzReview     Aled delivers some of the best lines in vocal jazz since the heyday of Mose Allison"   Fly Global Music Culture      ”
We Should Be There By Now - Album Review   [Review of debut album "We Should Be There By Now" by Fly Global Music Culture March 2007] No, not that Aled (Jones), this Aled delivers some of the best lines in vocal jazz since the heyday of Mose Allison. With song titles like "Chasing Rainbows", I have to admit to going through the motions on putting this CD on, only to be pleasantly proved wrong again and again. His uniquely British sense of ironic detachment and self-deprecation, teamed with a choice of subject matter ranging from motorway traffic to playing to empty houses and not getting paid and of course hopeless relationships is just plain laugh-out-loud funny. If the lyrics are witty celebrations of life in the wrong lane, this tight trio provides subtly clever musical accompaniment. Aled displays a sure grasp of how to musically emphasise and undermine at will his lyrics. No doubt 15 years playing in hotel lobbies and the like has left Aled with a sandpaper-dry sense of humour and a sure grasp of the relationship between chords and emotions. The Feelgood Factor delivers ten classic songs from the chronically unsuccessful doppelganger of Jamie Cullum. How ironic if this album made the trio a household name; could happen, it is that good. On the other hand, as the eponymous opener says, "the decision has been made. Thank you for the music but you are sure not, sure not, getting paid.        ” - Damain Rafferty

Fly Global Music Culture

Baggage Holiday - Album Review [Review of album Baggage Holiday by JazzReview June 2010] Featured Artist: Aled Thomas Trio CD Title: Baggage Holiday Year: 2010 Record Label: Itchy Knee Records Style: Jazz Vocals Musicians: Aled Thomas (piano and vocals), Jasper Morrissey (drums), and Dave Jenkins (electric fretless bass and double bass)   Review: Aled Thomas sounds like he could use a hug. Lucky for us that means he has written some good songs. His trio opens the CD with the title track, a clever number about checking in your emotional baggage at the airport and sending it away for a week. Thomas holds out hope that his troubles will get lost for good. "If there's one place they're likely to lose your baggage, it's Heathrow Terminal Five, sings the British pianist and vocalist. Thomas is a good antidote to those young jazz singers who strike a pose that's too smooth and too slick. While they may be hip, Thomas revels in being every man. He's put upon, weary, and funny. If he traded in his piano bench for a sit-com, he would play the acerbic office mate. If he had to be compared to another songwriter, Randy Newman might be a good choice. Both are adept at capturing the spirit of a particular moment in time. On "The Post Office Song", Thomas sings about a post office worker coming to visit him at home. Thomas naturally makes him wait in line before informing him that he has to fill out a form and then rejoin the queue. He then goes to lunch, leaving the post office worker to wait for him. It's a revenge song that could easily fall flat, but Thomas delivers the lines with just the right touch of humor. Thomas has writing credits on 11 of the dozen songs on the CD. The exception is a spirited cover of Irving Berlin's Blue Skies. It's a nice response to the troubles he sings about in the other numbers. Tracks: Baggage Holiday, Every Street, Not Here Tonight, Background Music, Function Band, Nagging Blues, Your Name Upon It, Wake Me Up, Archway Snooker Club, I Won't Let Them, Blue Skies, and The Post Office Song Artist's Website: http://www.aledthomas.net Reviewed by: Donna Kimura        ” - Donna Kimura

JazzReview

 The Post Office Song - Hornsey Journal   [Newspaper article about The Post Office Song - Hornsey Journal Feb 2009] Aled's song mocks post office queues nlnews@archant.co.uk 26 February 2009 A JAZZ musician has sent a "poison pen letter" to the Post Office - in the form of a satirical song - after being forced to stand in ever-increasing queues. The Post Office Song is the work of Aled Thomas, 37, who has a studio in Coleridge Road, Crouch End, and it has gained an online following. He was inspired to write the ditty about the Tottenham Lane branch he uses regularly. The musician said: "We've all seen people out of the door. They're carrying parcels and stuff, actually having to be outside the door in a queue." The song tells of an afternoon when a Post Office worker queues for hours to see a customer in his front room, before getting to the front, being asked to fill out a form and being sent to the back of the line again. "I walked past there after I'd written it and thought, I'd like to be able to play the people in the queue the song. I thought it would make my queue time a bit easier!" said Mr Thomas. Lynne Featherstone, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green and long-time campaigner against Post Office closures, wrote to Mr Thomas saying she was a fan of the song. Six branches across Haringey closed last June despite mass opposition, including those in Weston Park and Ferme Park Road. A survey carried out by the MP in the five months after the closures revealed waiting times of up to 35 minutes at the Tottenham Lane branch. Response to the song has been so positive it may feature on the second album of Mr Thomas' band, The Aled Thomas Trio.        ” - Emma Youle

Hornsey Journal

The eventful life of a jazz musician - Ealing Gazette   Feb 25 2010 Ealing Gazette ALED Thomas, 37, who formed the Aled Thomas Trio in 2002, is releasing Baggage Holiday next month. His most famous song to date is probably The Post Office Song, released on the internet. It generated a great deal of press attention when MP Lynne Featherstone used it as part of her campaign against long queues. Having studied classical and jazz piano at school in Darwin, Australia, Aled, of Ealing Broadway, started a law degree. This was short-lived as he was invited by a local country/rock band, called Ambush, to play keyboards and sing with them. This was in the rough outback towns of Australia's tropical north," he said. "I was 18, fresh out of school and I was in for a shock. Before my first gig with the band, Johnno, the band leader, took me to one side and gave me some advice: 'When the fighting starts, try to protect the music gear, but if they start throwing pool balls, get down behind the bar'. In another venue we went on after the stripper on knicker night - don't ask! This was a remote mining town 700 miles from anywhere, where the men outnumbered the women 11 to one. A wild place! This was a great first experience for me but I couldn't see a long-term future and I headed for London, where I was fortunate to get lessons with some of the UK's top jazz pianists. Because the London scene was tough to crack, he worked in a betting shop and then a music shop while attending workshops and courses. Then his luck changed. Out of the blue one day, I was offered a job in a band on a cruise ship," he said. "The following week I was sailing to the Caribbean. It was hard work, as our inexperienced band negotiated the cabaret chart-toppers and we upset a lot of stuffy ballroom dancers. After four months the band started to get cabin fever and we came back to the UK. He had made some music agent contacts on the ships and others were contacting him about demo tapes he had sent out before he left, and Aled realised he loved writing as well as performing. My inspiration to write jazz comes from years working as a pianist/singer and also as an accompanist for a wide range of vocalists. Performing the same songs night after night is a great way to memorise tunes and words. For me, this was a necessary step before writing my own material," he said. Playing hundreds of jazz standards and songs by great piano player/singers, such as Mose Allison, Randy Newman and Tom Waits, have made me more aware of the possibilities that exist for song writing. I became fascinated by song structure and how words can combine with music to create strong emotion and humour. I've always tried to do my own thing; in some ways existing outside the music establishment. It's a hard business but when you write a song that you're happy with or do a good gig, there's no better feeling! **Find out more at www.aledthomas.net

— Ealing Gazette