Al Thomas

A mainstay of Chicago’s South Aspect club picture, sadly, Small Al Thomas recorded just one single album for Cannonball Information prior to the label folded. His 1999 debut record, South Side Tale, using the Crazy Home Band, was an instantaneous traditional from a vocalist who more and more people in other areas of the united states had never noticed. It starts with “Memphis Female,” a horn-heavy traditional, and due to a tight-knit music group, clever agreements, and good creation values, the record just keeps improving following that. Thomas was created in Chicago in 1930 and was raised on historical Maxwell Road, where blues music artists would perform in the sidewalks one of the suppliers and restaurants. He started singing gospel on the Zion Hill Baptist Cathedral, even while savoring and learning from the recordings of Tampa Crimson, Lonnie Johnson, and John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson. Thomas, nicknamed “Small Al” for his fairly diminutive stature, proved helpful by day within a metal mill and sang within the clubs during the night as an avocation. By 1960 he started opening displays for Bobby “Blue” Bland. He spent a lot of the 1960s and ’70s dealing with guitarist Lacy Gibson, as well as the set shared an extended residency on the Time clock Lounge. In 1987 he started working regularly using the Crazy Home Music group at Spitz’s on Weekend nights, as well as the music begun to blossom from then on. In 1987 drummer Tom “Mot” Dutko founded the Crazy Home Music group, which also included guitarist John Edelmann, bassist Ed Galchick, and pianist Sidney Adam Wingfield. For Thomas’ debut, they’re became a member of with the Blues Swingers Horns, offering Dave Clark on tenor sax, Truck Kelly on baritone sax, and Paul Mundy on alto sax. A musician along with his very own notable blues background, Dutko found Chicago in the first ’70s from Ohio and quickly discovered a gig with Homesick Adam. Being a drummer in a variety of night clubs with Homesick Adam, he also acquired the opportunity to backup Chicago blues legends Jimmy Reed, John Brim, Floyd Jones, Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy Rogers, Eddie Taylor, Jimmy Walker, Big Walter Horton, Billy Branch, among others. Within the 1980s Dutko became a member of saxophonist Eddie Shaw in his touring music group as they produced their method across America and European countries in some vehicle and bus trips. South Side Tale is an amazing debut recording, designated by Thomas’ passionate, soulful vocals. Presuming that he continues to be in a healthy body, what Thomas right now needs may be the opportunity to record even more and set up a touring foundation beyond Chicago.