We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Fred Tompkins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Fred below.

Hi Fred, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I would say that my most meaningful project was the production of my first album, “Compositions of Fred Tompkins”, because it set in motion the basic direction of my music from then on, and employed some super top flight musicians of the time: Elvin Jones, Richard Davis, Billy Cobham, Joe Farrell, Pepper Adams and many others. The album contained all of the basic elements of my nascent style.

Since then, I have gone on to write and record music of which I am even more proud, over the course of twelve more albums, and which has broadened my approach to include free improvisation, vocal settings of poetry, free improvisation, and music to accompany paintings – most often, though, in my own 3rd Stream (ish) style.

The best works from the LP “Compositions of Fred Tompkins”, can now be heard, along with the best my other early works on the CD “Fanfare 8”. – Yet, still, that first LP was my first, big personal breakthrough.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a composer and flutist (C flute & bass flute), now living in my home town of St. Louis where I started my career and began my musical studies. However, in the interim, I lived in New York City for 18 years, married Odile (French) and raised two kids – iow, a lot happened there, even outside of my musical pursuits!

New York City is also where I composed and recorded my first music in the style which has become virtually my language ever since: Third Stream Music, defined usually as the blending of classical and jazz genres, in my case the blending of modern classical harmonies and extended (non-jazz) forms with jazz rhythms, propulsion and a jazz (or sometimes rock) drummer. I know, it sounds complicated, but for me it has just evolved into my own language. I had always loved both styles, so this direction in music seemed so naturally imperative.

Then, after I returned to St. Louis to continue my career, I found myself broadening my interests to include free improvisation on flute, largely as a result of casual contacts. This has resulted in performing and recording with some fantastic free improv players here, such as Greg Mills – piano; Jim Hegarty – electronics, and Glen ‘Papa’ Wright, Jr. – percussion, forming the core of my current group.

As I explained (in broad general terms) when you asked me to describe the most meaningful project of my career, my life’s pursuit has been the synthesis of various contrasting styles in music. And this has led me (somewhat unexpectedly) into a variety of different areas: I loved jazz, classical and rock music right from the start, so these various forms just seemed to flow together naturally for me. I know this may seem implausible to most people, but for me, although I have had my share of technical struggles in music, the basic act of conceptualizing and conjuring up musical ideas in my own style has flowed fairly smoothly.

Also, along the lines of serendipity: Early on, my father introduced me to the poetry of *E E Cummings. I took to Cummings right away and literally within weeks I had written my first vocal works to his poetry (naturally, in my own style), and not long after that a friend got me started on Emily Dickinson, with the same predictable results, all this work to be included on my own CDs.

One time when my music was being performed on a concert, I noticed that an artist was sitting over in the corner painting.
Well, it turned out that she (Marian Olin) was painting, action style with a Japanese quill pen, to my music as it was passing by.
We struck up a relationship, and went on to produce several art shows with my music running alongside her painting.
Her work has adorned my compilation CD, “Fanfare 8”.

IOW, lesson learned: Always try to grab opportunities as they come by. Hopefully, you’ll be able to back out, if things don’t work well, but most of the time you’ll find youself making some exciting new discoveries!

*Although lots of words in Cummings’s poetry use the lower case (very creatively), it’s said that he hated it when people didn’t capitalize his own name.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Here is a small story, yet a story with an outcome that may have set the stage for my general attitude of tenacity:

In the earliest days of performing and recording my music in New York City I would tend to employ the musicians I had heard on recordings, like drummer Elvin Jones, saxophonists Joe Farrell and Frank Foster, etc.

Well, my first attempt to get Elvin into the studio didn’t go too smoothly. He didn’t show up (though I’m sure he knew he was being paid), so the thought did cross my mind that I might want to move on to another drummer.
Of course I didn’t, but for the re-scheduled session, I was determined not to fail, so I went by his apartment (located in a distant neighborhood on the lower east side), made sure he had all his equipment together, put both of us in a cab and headed to the studio. It was a great session, and Elvin was never again late for one of my recordings.

Events like this happen from time to time, but you’ve just got to hang in there until you can make everything come together.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Oddly, I find it tremendously rewarding to complete a really well recorded and well performed studio (or ‘live’) recording – a full length CD or even just a single work. Of course, composing the work (or improvising a piece with others) is both critical and extremely rewarding, but sometimes I look at a few of those compositions on my shelf which have never seen the light of day, or reminisce about an improvised performance that was never recorded or videotaped, and have some worries that those works may never influence another human.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tompkinsjazz.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cbassflute
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fred.tompkins.54
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FredKTompkins/videos
• Other: Bandcamp: fredtompkins.bandcamp.com