Playing vibes, drums, and percussion, Ben Thomas has performed since the mid 1980s in a wide variety of formats and genres. Recent appearances include the Bumbershoot Arts Festival, Detroit-Montreaux Jazz Festival, Issaquah Jazz Festival, Anacortes Arts Festival, Ellensburg Jazz in the Valley Festival, Tacoma Maritime Festival, Bellingham Art of Jazz Series, and the Seattle Art Museum.

Thomas graduated from Swarthmore with degrees in math and music. While completing graduate studies at the University of Michigan, he directed the University's Jazz Composers Orchestra and performed with Stephen Rush. Since moving to Seattle, Thomas has been involved in teaching and leading jazz groups, and was awarded a grant for music composition by the Seattle Arts Commission in 1999. His current projects span jazz, salsa, swing, and chamber music. Notes Jovino Santos Neto, Brazilian pianist/composer/flautist, “ Ben is a great composer, and an energetic performer who knows how deep music can go. It's always fun to play with him.” Thomas released to previous recordings, The Madman’s Difference (Origin, 1998) and Mystagogue (Origin, 2000).

Photo by Andrea Canter

Laura Caviani’s roots are solidly in the Midwest and music. She tells about her father’s barbershop quartet gigs as a student at Grinnell College in Iowa, when the young pianist was a fellow named Herbie Hancock. She received a Bachelor’s of Music in Composition from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI, and a Masters of Music in Improvisation from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where Ben Thomas was a fellow classmate. Caviani received a grant from the Atlantic Center for the Arts in 1997 to study with piano virtuoso JoAnne Brackeen, and the following year was one of four American musicians selected to study in Japan at the Akiyoshidai International Art Village. Her teaching credits include St. John's University, the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, the University of St. Thomas, the University of Minnesota, and many middle schools in Minneapolis through the "Harman How to Listen Program," an outreach project co-founded by Wynton Marsalis. As a professor at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, Laura has taught classes in improvisation, composition/arranging, and jazz keyboard techniques.

Caviani is a veteran of over 15 years of performing, recording and composing, including appearances with Toots Theilemans, Bob Mintzer, and Dave Liebman, and touring and recording with rising star vocalist Karrin Allyson. As a leader she has four acclaimed recordings to her credit and a long list of supporting roles with local musicians, as well as appearing on Ben Thomas’ Mystagogue. Recent activities include the Millay Project with Prudence Johnson, Soul Café with guitarist Steve Blons and saxman Brad Holden, Pete Whitman’s Xtet and Departure Point, weekly gigs at Rossi’s, tours with Karrin Allyson and Sara Garazek, and numerous appearances with vocalist Lucia Newell. As a composer, she has created numerous works for jazz ensembles and orchestral works for the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra. Whether comping for big band, trio or vocalist, or leading the way with her improvisations of standards or original works, Laura displays a wide range of harmony and passion, dazzling energy, and boundless imagination.

Joining Thomas and Caviani at the Dakota will be two popular anchors of area rhythm sections, bassist Jeff Bailey and drummer Phil Hey. The local celebration of the release of Triskaidekaphobia gives Twin Cities audiences a second chance to hear Ben Thomas in little over a year; last August he performed at the Artists’ Quarter with the Laura Caviani Trio. [See Jazz Police review] The collaboration of Thomas and Caviani was magical, and we can expect more empathetic excitement when these two old friends join forces to highlight Ben Thomas’ original music at the Dakota.

Celebrate the release of Ben Thomas’ new CD in the company of the Laura Caviani Quartet at the Dakota, 1010 Nicollet Mall, downtown Minneapolis. Sets start at 8 pm. Visit www.dakotacooks.com. For more on Ben Thomas, visit www.malletman.com

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