Allan Thomas

Allan Thomas sings and plays guitar in a mellow acoustic pop style well suited to the atmosphere of a Hawaiian shoreline at twilight. His musical interests surfaced early when he joined an a cappella ensemble at age twelve in New York City. During adolescence he strengthened his guitar technique through engagements with area groups that accompanied touring R&B acts. At eighteen he obtained his first solo contract from Scepter Records, which soon produced two little-known singles. After frequent appearances at Greenwich Village coffee houses, he traveled westward with his instrument, pausing in Tennessee, Colorado, Oregon, and California before serving as rhythm guitarist for vocalist Lynn Kellogg on the road.

Those efforts led to a Sire Records agreement in the early 1970s and the 1971 release of his debut album, A Picture. He promoted the record with a national tour that included opening slots for Livingston Taylor, the Marc Almond Band, Weather Report, and the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. A friendship developed with the final act, whose cornetist Nat Adderley enlisted Thomas to improvise vocals on “Behold” for the 1972 album Soul of the Bible. Thomas also joined the Cannonball Adderley Quintet onstage at the Troubadour and Lighthouse clubs in Southern California during that period.

He later relocated once more, settling in England and performing throughout England and Denmark with singer Carole Cook. The pair moved to Malibu, California, in 1974, where they married and contributed backing vocals to other recording projects. By the late 1970s both Thomas and Cook had joined the staff of Los Angeles-based ABC Music as songwriters. Subsequent developments—the end of his marriage and the Santa Monica Bay Band’s failure to secure a recording contract—prompted a personal and professional reassessment that brought him to Hawaii in 1983.

His new surroundings encouraged a fresh creative direction, and he began composing pieces that wove jazz, blues, R&B, and Latin elements into a unified sound. Eighteen years after his debut he issued another solo album, The Island, in 1989 on his own Black Bamboo Recordings label. Coconut Culture appeared in 1996, after which several of his originals received covers by Hawaiian artists including the Hawaiian Style Band, the Beamer Brothers, and Norman “Kaawa” Soloman. The tracks “I’ll Find You Yet” and “Ka Wai Aloha” were featured in the 1998 film Beyond Paradise, while a new solo project began to take form around his growing interest in alternate guitar tunings. In addition to recording, Thomas serves as a DJ at public radio station KKCR, hosting the weekly program “Show with No Name,” and maintains his website, www.allanthomas.com.