The relatively short recording career of Joe Thomas—one among four separate jazz horn players bearing that name—amounted largely to a deep dive into funky flute playing. While hardly alone among wind players layering melodies over driving rhythms during the 1970s and 1980s, Thomas joined a cohort that also featured Herbie Mann, Jeremy Steig, and Hubert Laws. His standout effort in the style, the extended track “Funky Fever,” stretches beyond ten minutes of what has been characterized as “jazzy disco funk boogie,” anchored by a vocal refrain chanting “I’ve got this funky, funky fever.”
Between 1975 and 1980 Thomas issued roughly six albums under his own name and enjoyed modest commercial traction. The conceptual breadth of these projects set him apart: his debut collection of disco-jazz instrumentals bore the title Masada, referencing the ancient Jewish stronghold whose inhabitants chose mass suicide over surrender to Roman forces. Several years afterward he scored a hit with “Plato’s Retreat,” the title cut of an album that likewise celebrated the New York City nightclub known for group sexual encounters. An accomplished writer and orchestrator, Thomas contributed to numerous independent R&B sessions for figures such as Sonny Lester, though many of these efforts appeared without attribution. After vanishing from the scene in the early 1980s, he later resurfaced as a cult figure among acid-jazz and breakbeat collectors. Additional favorites among his recordings include the club staple “Polarizer” and an inventive reading of “Two Doors Down,” the pop-country song first cut by Dolly Parton. Thomas was known by the nickname “The Ebony Godfather.”
