"This was a dream band to write for and play with," alto saxophonist Michael Thomas says of Manuel Valera, Matt Brewer and Obed Calvaire, his A-list rhythm section on Illusion of Choice, his Criss Cross debut, and fourth leader album. "These musicians can play any style and sound like it's the only thing they play. I wanted to explore these different areas and cohere them into an album, not sound like tunes stuck together for a CD. Everything was on the table. I wasn't afraid to develop whatever ideas I came up with, and see where they went."
The encounter gestated in spring 2023, when pianist Valera - who'd recorded Vessel (Criss-1416) in January - suggested to label proprietor Jerry Teekens that he match Thomas with this band. They met when both played with Dafnis Prieto's big band in 2017. Soon thereafter, Valera started calling Thomas for gigs with his quintet. Thomas reciprocated, calling Valera for engagements with the Terraza Big Band (he's co-led it with bassist Edward Perez since 2015), which recorded five of Thomas's charts on the 2019 Grammy-nominated One Day Wonder. Also in 2019, Thomas made the live recording Event Horizon with a quartet featuring trumpeter Jason Palmer, bassist Hans Glawischnig and drummer Johnathan Blake, and the studio date Natural Habitat (with pianist Julian Shore, Glawischnig and Blake). Both showcase his original music, as did the self-released The Long Way from 2011.
Although Illusion of Choice features an assembled-for-the-occasion ensemble rather than the working bands documented on his earlier albums, Thomas, 36, considers it "the strongest thing I've done so far." During the four months preceding the September 2023 recording session, Thomas generated eight originals tailored to the tonal personalities of his protean collaborators. They live up to the leader's ballyhoo, nailing the shifting meters and intervallic challenges of his high-degree-of-difficulty pieces with panache and creative spirit.
