Hey Y'all,

MY FAVORITE FORUM FRIENDS ARE THE FIRST TO KNOW!

I'm finally coming out with my 5th solo CD, "Reflections Over Time". It will be available digitally May 25th, and physically June 8th. You guys can help me by spreading the word through your own cyber-channels. I will be following through on my Facebook, Plaxo and Linked-in accounts as well as my website...www.jazzbridge.com.

I'm very proud of this one (if I do say so myself). I believe it's my best yet! It features Bonny B, Kevin Stixx Marshall and Ludwig Afonso -drums; Ameen Saleem (upright bass on Giant Steps); Jay Azzolina, Alvin White, David Becker and Andy Wasson - guitars; Skip Martin - trumpet, flugelhorn and vocals; Julian Tanaka -tenor and soprano sax; also introducing my alter egos, Schu Thomas - bass and Slide Funkshin - drums/percussion (everyone used to say I was a nice bunch of guys, LOL).

The best way I can describe this CD is an eclectic blend of many genres of jazz music from classic to fusion and beyond. Jay Beckenstein heard the first cut which is a tribute to the late great Joe Zawinul, "A Quote From Mr Z", and had to have it in our current set. We now open the Spyro Gyra show with it.

As always, I look forward to your comments!

Wow! I can't wait to hear it!

Dude, whatever happened to Schu Thompson?
This is great news. I look forward to hearing it.

I changed Schu Thompson's name to Schu Thomas so it would be more obvious that it was actually me playing bass.

This whole alter ego thing started when people would ask me after hearing my CDs; who was on bass? After revealing who it was, I would have to explain how I got it to sound so real, what modules/VSTs, I used, etc., etc., etc. So I decided to give my virtual bass player and drummer cool names to somehow curtail the explanation process. Schu Thompson sounded too much like a real cat. So I changed it to make it easier to put 2 & 2 together. Hey, it's all a part of being creative isn't it?

By the way, Slide Funkshin came from a parameter on my first midi sequencer application called Cakewalk Pro 3.0. There was a selection from the edit menu called the "slide function". I would use it to make my quantized drum tracks sound more human.

So there you have it. The cat's out of the bag.

Sweet. You're one very cool cat, Schu.

Awesome! Heard "A Quote from Mr. Z" when you guys were debuting some the new setlist material in Seattle a couple months back. Was a fun, funky opener and I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the record. You've got some cool people joining you on this one.

Great news!

I've also been working on a website, http://jtsexperience.com which highlights the work I have been doing with former Dazz Band/Cool and the Gang member, Skip Martin. There are some samples of "Reflections Over Time" on the JTS Music page.

Sick I can't wait! I really love your other releases Tom so I'm looking forward to this one! (By the way, that KORG Prophecy is sick!)

I just pre-ordered the CD, Tom. I can't wait to hear it.