Detroit Research Volume 1

98
Pianist Thollem McDonas, 45, is considered
one of the rising stars of adventurous music.
Perhaps he is the Roman candle of the contemporary
improvised music scene. Over the
last few years Thollem’s growing stature as a
daring pianist has afforded him the opportunity
to record and perform with experimental music
mainstays such as guitarist Nels Cline, bassist
William Parker, percussionist Susie Ibarra, and
legendary composer/theorist Pauline Oliveros.
Thollem won his renown the old fashioned
way: with a grueling touring schedule, a punkinspired
work ethic, and an open-hearted desire
to collaborate and perform with whomever
and wherever the music demands. It is impossible
to understand Thollem’s artistic practice
separate from his relentless touring and knack
for collaborating. Thollem’s fi rst visit to Detroit
seven years ago was supposed to be yet another
gig on a cross-country tour. Instead, he
immediately connected to a city and an artistic
community that would profoundly impact his
work and set the stage for some of his most
vital and substantial collaborations yet. Just as
Thollem McDonas bear hugged Detroit’s tightknit
improvised music community, the community
itself fell for this charismatic pianist who
had arrived in their midst. It was pure chemistry.
Thollem’s emergence as a troubadour of wild,
joyous, and often jagged piano improvisations
stands in stark contrast to his formative
years as a disciplined conservatory student
immersed in his training. His entire youth was
focused on mastering the classical piano repertoire,
spurred on by his pianist mother and
surrounded by dedicated musicians. But the
wave of jingoism and militarism that swept the
country in the lead up to the 1991 invasion of
Iraq was too disturbing for Thollem to ignore.
Soon he would drop everything to become a
full time activist in the anti-war and radical environmental
movements, effectively ending his
promising career as a concert pianist. Thollem
spent most of the 1990’s at the heart of the
West Coast radical activist scene, from Earth
First’s Redwood Summer project to a fi ve day
march on the Nevada nuclear test site on Shoshone
land. When he eventually reemerged
as a full-time musician he found a home in the
Bay Area’s vibrant and decidedly unorthodox
improvised music community.
To understand how Thollem McDonas could
fall under Detroit’s spell it is essential to look
at the music community he discovered upon
arriving in 2006. Thollem’s fi rst gig in Detroit
was at the Bohemian National Home, a decaying
1900’s social hall on Detroit’s Westside
that musician Joel Peterson had re-opened
as a music and art venue. The massive brick
building was oddly quite homey, with couches
and bookshelves and an upstairs ballroom.
Raw to be sure, but also glowing with possibility.
Joel Peterson, a multi-instrumentalist and
promoter with roots in the Free Jazz scene,
was booking all sorts of challenging artists,
from jazz legends like Marshall Allen and
Henry Grimes to avant-rock acts like Can’s
Damo Suzuki and Mission Of Burma, along
with everything from Arabic folk music to the
unclassifi able Eugene Chadbourne. But most
importantly Peterson was using the Bohemian
National Home as a home base for Detroit’s
jazz-infl uenced avant-garde improvised music
scene. Too few Detroit jazz clubs open their
doors to the children of Albert Ayler and Sun
Ra. Joel Peterson’s Bohemian National Home
became their clubhouse.
Thollem McDonas’ music does not slip silently
into genre classifi cation. Fans of 20th century
classical music marvel at his arresting technique,
while devotees of fi re-breathing free
jazz eat up his manic energy. His music touches
on all of those schools but insists on independence.
Detroit’s improvised music scene
has distinct roots stretching back to the birth of
the “New Thing” in jazz in the 1960’s. Detroit
has never suffered from a lack of dedicated
improvisers, but it has