Jon Thomas

Artist: Jon Thomas

LP: Big Beat On the Organ

Song: "Hot Tip" 
[ listen ]

Song: "Hard Head" 
[ listen ]

Lately I've been trying to reorganize stuff in my apartment, and I thought it would be good if I bought some reorganizing music to help me get with it. Golden Oldies came through in spades, as usual, and I found way more there than I'd bargained—or budgeted—for. There's not a set of complete biographical information about jazz organist Jon Thomas that I could find on the web, but according to AllMusic, he was born in 1918 and someone on e-bay says that happened in Mississippi. Jon went on to become a session musician at King Records, says our e-bay contact, where he composed "Heartbreak," a hit for Little Willie John (I bet that's Jon on organ!). According to last.fm, Jon Thomas' "Big Beat On the Organ" LP was released on the first day of 1958; AllMusic says Jon died at the end of October, 1994. The photo below shows what Jon looked like, according to last.fm. I don't know how reliable any of that information is, but there is one thing about Jon Thomas we do know for sure: He was a talented jazz organist extraordinaire!

[ Jon Thomas: 1918 — October 28, 1994 ]