Thomas Marek Trio , Footprints

Tap dancers are both dancers and musicians and tap dance has always been a part of jazz music. However, allowing tap to function as an independent, percussive voice in jazz music, as a fully-fledged percussion instrument in a contemporary, free musical context, is still uncommon. When tap dancer and drummer Thomas Marek plays with his trio, movement is made audible: the percussive sounds of tap merge with the arrangements and improvisations of his fellow musicians. Together with pianist Patrick Bebelaar and bassist Jan Roder, Thomas Marek explores the boundaries of jazz and tap dance.

In their performance, they depart from classical song structures and immerse themselves in free improvisations in which rhythm, melody, and form are constantly being recreated. Marek's virtuoso tap dance – enhanced by the sonic possibilities of the drum kit – develops its own percussive language in which the whole body becomes an instrument. Together with the powerful avant-garde play of Bebelaar and Roder, an intense concert experience ensues, drawing from communiction and the stage performer’s interplay.

As a stage artist, choreographer and teacher, Thomas Marek has brought together traditional as well as modern tap dance forms with contemporary musical and theatrical elements for the past 30 years. The masters from whom he learned and who continue to inspire him were all innovators in their art themselves: Honi Coles, Cholly Atkins, Chuck Green, Buster Brown, Jimmy Slyde, and, most importantly, Brenda Bufalino with whose Tap Dance Orchestra he toured Florida during the mid-Nineties.

Deeply rooted in jazz, Thomas Marek plays with the possibilities of sonic shaping, of phrasing, touch, and sound. He explores the room that tap dance moves in and pushes boundaries, all the while discovering new forms of expression that are tied to tap’s origins and which draw from its cultural context – and to tell new stories.

“Thomas Marek didn't just dance to the music, he was a full-fledged soloist in a band that has a tap dancer in the front row instead of a saxophonist.”
Jazzpodium

“Thomas Marek breathes new life into an age-old art form.”
Werner Stiefele, Stuttgarter Zeitung

“He celebrates with breathtaking precision ... Everything that jazz ever was or is today sparkles.”
Frankfurter Neue Presse

Duration: 75 – 85 Min.