Live Jazz with Jon Thomas & Firm Roots

When: Saturday, February 25, 2023, 1:00pm

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Image of three men and one woman standing in a line in front of a graphic art wall — Courtesy, Jon Thomas

On Saturday, February 25th, the Museum's Rotunda will be filled with the sounds of live jazz by pianist Jon Thomas and Firm Roots. Performances begin at 11:30am and at 1:00pm. With Imani Rousselle (voice); Gary Jones (drums), and Liany Mateo (bass). Part of MCNY's celebration of Black History Month.

Enjoy brunch-style bites upstairs at our cafe, Amy's Bread while you listen!

After the performances, join us for a FREE screening of the 2021 film PASSING downstairs in Ronay Menschel Hall at 2:00 pm.

About Jon Thomas:
Deemed “stunningly good” by the New York Times and a graduate of the famed Juilliard School Thomas has played in festivals around the world, and has performed with Charles Toliver, Walter Blanding, Marquis Hill, Bruce Williams, Dominick Farinacci, Richie Goods, Jazzmeia Horn, and the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, among many others. Thomas graduated from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in 2015 and The Juilliard School in 2019. He has been a student to pianists Aaron Goldberg, Dan Nimmer, Aaron Parks, and Taylor Eigsti. In 2012 he was awarded The ASCAP foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award.

About Firm Roots:
True to their name Jon Thomas and Firm Roots paint, with ardent and skillful strokes, a celebration of the storied art form that is American music. Firm Roots pulls from the murky and hallowed depths of traditional American folk songs, swing music, the avant-garde, the most novel and infectious of backbeats, and back again. They connect hundreds of years of musical and oral traditions through two qualities which their leader considers to be the most important factors to the group: soulful storytelling and deeply personal interpretation.