Samuel Thomas

Receiving two degrees from Berklee College of Music Jazz Composition and Performance, Samuel is currently a Ph.D candidate in Ethnomusicology at the City University of New York. His work includes North African musical traditions, Arab music, Jewish music research and jazz, rock and American popular music. He is co-founder of FourMinusOne (http://www.FourMinusOne.com), a jazz/rock power trio formed in 1997. Recordings with FourMinusOne include At Any Given Moment, Live! and Split Decision. He is founder and executive director of JATM (Jewish Awareness Though Music) (http://www.jatm.org) and bandleader of Asefa (http://www.asefamusic.com), an ensemble devoted to contemporary approaches to composition, improvisation, and fusion drawn from Sephardic and worldwide Jewish musics.

He teaches History of American Popular Music at John Jay, an Introduction to World Music at Hunter College, and private instrumental lessons on woodwinds (saxophone, clarinet, flute), piano, guitar, and hand percussion.

Samuel can be contacted at: sthomas @ gc.cuny.edu