Thomas Hulten commenting on his song “Pilska Polka” from his album Slide Side. You may buy it now!
Here is the Pay Pal link to purchase Thomas’ album!!!! Buy one, five, or however many your heart desires! The album is amazing, and it will make a present for the holidays for all jazz lovers alike. Enjoy!
Buy a Slide Side CD with Pay Pal
Thomas Hultén is a jazz and classical trombone player, arranger and composer. Thomas is currently Acting Principal trombone with the Houston Grand Opera. His 1st studio album was released in September, 2009 by Tierra Studios.
He started playing at the age of ten in the local Salvation Army Band in his hometown of Katrineholm, Sweden. After completing his military service with the Swedish Army Band in 1984, he studied trombone performance at the Gothenburg Conservatory with Ingemar Roos as his primary teacher. After graduating he won a position with the Bohus Big Band, one of Sweden’s two professional big bands. In 1990 Thomas became a member of the Hässlö Brass Ensemble (later re-named Messing Around), a full-time brass ensemble, along with being Principal trombone of the Västerås Sinfonietta.
He was also a sought-after freelance player, and has performed with the Gothenburg Symphony, the Gothenburg Opera, the Helsingborg Symphony, the Norrköping Symphony, Stavanger (Norway) Symphony and the Trondheim (Norway) Symphony.
Since moving to Houston, Texas, in 1997 he has performed with Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Dave Brubeck, Natalie Cole, Barry Manilow, Patti Austin, Johnny Mathis, Michael Bolton, the Moody Blues, the Temptations, the Four Tops and the O’Jays. He performs regularly with the Houston Symphony, the Houston Ballet, the Houston Grand Opera and Theatre under the Stars. Thomas was in the orchestra for the touring Broadway musicals “The Full Monty”, “The Producers”, “42nd Street”, “Music Man”, “All Shook Up”, “Swing” and, most recently “The Rat Pack” at the Hobby Center in Houston. He has been featured at the Texas Jazz Festival and the Kemah Jazz Festival with his own group, and at the International Trombone Festival, both as a soloist and as a member of “Spiritual to the ‘Bone”. His quartet opened for Maynard Ferguson’s Houston concert in February of 2006.
Thomas teaches low brass at the Houston Baptist University and the Houston Community College, and directs the jazz ensemble at the Tomball College. His wife Tina is a microbiologist at Baylor College of Medicine, and they have three sons, Jakob, David and Philip.
Jazz Saxophonist Larry Slezak was born in Manhattan in 1946. He gravitated to the saxophone after hearing Bill Doggett’s hit recording of “Honky Tonk.” Growing up in New York afforded him the opportunity, while still in his teens, to hear all the great musicians live: from Armstrong to Ellington and Basie. He was drawn to the music and was working professionally by the time he was 14.
Since relocating to Houston in 1973, Slezak has mastered the entire reed instrument family and has performed in the orchestras for Johnny Mathis, Liza Minnelli, Burt Bacharach, Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, and countless others. He also performs with the Houston Symphony and Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, and he teaches saxophone and applied jazz studies at Rice University, where he directs the Rice Jazz Ensembles.
Slezak brings an assured swing, a warm soulful tone, and a wealth of experience to No Worries, his first CD as a leader, which was released by Houston’s Tierra Studios on November 25, 2008.
He is joined on the recording by the Larry Slezak Quartet and by his B3 Hammond Organ Band¬: veteran guitarist Clayton Dyess, bassist Thomas Helton, pianist and organ player José-Miguel Yamal, vocalist Sheri Lavo, and Larry’s son Joe Slezak on drums.
“The band is playing the kind of music people don’t get to hear that much anymore,” says Slezak, who first played with a B3 at the age of 15. “Small-group jazz is to American music what the string quartet is to classical music.”
For more information, visit www.larryslezak.com.
Larry Slezak – No Worries
