Future Jazz: Thollem’s Electric Confluence

The Alternative Library’s Future Jazz series explores work from modern experimental composers and improvisers in the field of jazz~

Doors at 7:30pm; Music at 8:00pm
$6-10 supports the artists and the AltLib

Thollem’s Electric Confluence is exactly what you’d think Omni-Idiomatic music influenced by cultures from Ethiopia, Japan, China, Persia, Latin America, Ireland, Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia, The Balkans, Jazz, Blues, Punk, Country and the Avant Garde might sound like played on a synthesizer by ​an intense and virtuosic keyboardist.
​- Time Out, New York

While Thollem is a classically trained pianist, he prefers an improvisational approach that incorporates elements of free-jazz, post-classical, the Blues, punk, and noise. In addition, the musician’s aesthetic is informed by the years he spent involved in “grassroots politics,” as well as “anti-war and environmental activism.” Much of his twenties he lived out of a backpack as, what he would describe, an “itinerant antagonist to society.” This period also saw him putting aside music in favor of his activism and writing. Thollem explains that he would eventually go on to realize that his musical abilities offered the best way for him to “participate in making the world a better place.” Exploring his discography, it’s obvious he’s never looked back since. Still informed by his anarchist roots and living an itinerant lifestyle after all these years, Thollem’s music is a testament to his restless and prolific creative drive, as well as Art’s ability to bridge and build diverse communities.

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Thollem was exposed to the music of an incredible array of communities that influenced his development ​as a musician and a person. He has spent much of his adult life touring throughout N. America and Europe.

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