Born in a culturally diverse neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Thomas cut his musical teeth in Chicago during a particularly fertile period for that city, where he formed the compositional concepts that would provide a springboard for tireless exploration in the ensuing decades. Thomas moved to Minneapolis in 1972, where, in the mode of Horace Tapscott, he eschewed the industry-driven career path, choosing instead to work within the Twin Cities' community.

Ever since Carei moved to Minneapolis, he's not only developed a myriad of interdisciplinary creation strategies, but also focused his energy on operating a community-oriented framework - one that emphasizes a universal making-things-happen over the individual returns that such a brotherhood may or may not yield. This focus on the higher good is undoubtedly a byproduct of Carei's time spent in Chicago during the formative years of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the musicians' cooperative whose then- (and somewhat still-) revolutionary communal ideals paved the way for the Windy City's thriving contemporary jazz and experimental music climate. During that time, Carei took advantage of the opportunity to bounce ideas off kindred spirits like Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre (with whom he co-formed a group called The Light that also included Wadada Leo Smith and Jerome Cooper), Muhal Richard Abrams, and Henry Threadgill - resources that had an unmistakable impact on the tenets of his compositional ideology.

That Carei has maintained a formal connection to the AACM over temporal and physical distances highlights the dedication to collective philosophies that remains so crucial to his artistic production. He often speaks of ideas flowing between creative minds as blood flows through capillaries - not just a pleasant consequence of chance meetings amongst congruent imaginations, but rather a process necessary to the life of the physical body. In keeping with this principle, Carei's compositions are supremely spacious beings, allowing ample room for his compatriots to infuse each performance with their unique brands of musical plasma. But where composers of lesser stature are often left with anonymous changelings lacking signature and definition when attempting similar endeavors, Carei's music sounds unquestionably like Carei.

Text above excerpted from Scott Hrera's liner notes for "Mining Our Bidness" - A new Carei Thomas release from Roaratorio

Feel Free - Background

The prep school for the development of Carei Thomas' "Feel Free" group took place on the West Bank in the mid-70's. It was a place known as "The Rainbow Gallery," run by the notorious Steve Kimmel, his then wife - Vicky, and the cutest soul of a dog named Chimbini, a chihuahua whose presence illuminated the area with an innocent air of goodwill.

Over the years, with a special interest in the healing aspects of sound and color, Carei developed a "jazz" form easily accessed by all levels of humanity. In 1993, he received a Bush Fellowship award for composition. In 1999, Carei received a McKnight Composer Fellowship. He has been associated for a number of years with the literary, visual arts, dance, music, recovery, neighborhood, and Buddhist communities of the Twin Cities. His compositions are multifaceted and encompass an historic range of musical styles, always expressing social and personal experiences and observations He is known throughout the arts community for his creative improvisational music, spiritual energy and interdisciplinary vision.

Bob Protzman in a St. Paul Pioneer Press article in 1997 referred to Thomas as "a major force on the local avant-garde jazz and new-music scene for 20 years."

Tom Surowicz in a Twin Cities Reader article said, "Thomas' music is playful, harmonious, energetic, dynamic, buoyant, and one-of-a-kind. It's more life-affirming than a bushel of stuffy string quartets, or a Sahara of dry computer compositions. Thomas' work is indeed macro, beaming out in a multitude of directions." And, Mr. Surowicz in another Reader article said, "Carei Thomas' fanciful original jazz is one of the most joyous noises the Twin Cities musical community has to offer."